The Barclays Municipal Bond Index is considered representative of the broad market for investment grade, tax-exempt municipal bonds with a maturity of at least one year. The AAA and BBB indices are sub-sets of this broader index. The Barclays U.S. Treasury Index is the U.S. Treasury component of the Barclays U.S. Government Index. The index includes public obligations of the U.S. Treasury with a remaining maturity of one year or more.
A 10-year U.S. Treasury Note is a debt obligation issued by the United States government that matures in ten years.
An obligation rated ‘AAA’ has the highest rating assigned by Standard and Poor’s.
According to Standard and Poor’s, an obligation rated ‘BBB’ exhibits adequate protection parameters and is still considered investment grade.
This article was written by James Colby, a portfolio manager and senior municipal strategist at Market Vectors ETFs.