iShares: Three Pictures Paint the 'Big Picture' in Muni Bonds | ETF Trends

The municipal bond market continues to be the subject of some pretty ugly headlines. But headlines, we know, rarely tell the whole story.

Pictures, on the other hand, paint a thousand words.

In my last blog, I tried to distinguish Detroit from the broader market.

In this post, I’d like to share a few graphs that really speak to the depth and diversity of the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market:

High Quality

With an average rating of AA, the municipal bond market remains of high quality, particularly relative to the corporate bond market. Consider also that of the more than 7,500 municipal entities it rates, Moody’s assigns a below investment-grade rating to only 34. The agency has labeled Detroit non-investment-grade since 2009.

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