municipal bonds

Oil prices are on the mend this year, but the United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (NYSE: USO) would need to more than triple to sniff its 2014 highs. USO, which tracks front-month West Texas Intermediate futures, would need to nearly quadruple to come within striking distance of its 2012 highs. Heading...

Among the fixed income exchange-traded funds that find themselves in the sweet spot thanks to the Federal Reserve consistently passing on another interest rate hike are municipal bond funds, particularly those of the longer-dated variety. Although there has been some chatter regarding the impact of...

Cate Long was recently a guest on #PreMarket Prep, a daily trading idea radio show hosted by Joel Elconin and Dennis Dick. Trading municipal bond funds during a massive market-wide sell-off like the one seen on Monday may not be a top priority for most investors. However, Cate Long, a municipal...

Last Friday was a great day for Detroit, according to Cate Long, after a Federal judge approved the city’s bankruptcy exit plan. “It looks like the judge will sign off on this pretty quickly, and then Detroit can get to the business of implementing their new financial structure,...

This week’s #PreMarket Prep broadcast will include analysis of REITs, high-frequency trading and municipal bonds. Be sure to tune in at 8:00 am EST Monday-Friday here to tune in. Monday, November 10, 8:35 a.m. Kenny Polcari (@KennyPolcari), Director of NYSE Floor Operations for O'...

U.S. stocks declined as geopolitical concerns outweighed an improved economic read on second-quarter growth. Ukraine's President stated that Russian troops had crossed in to Ukraine territory and were fighting alongside Russian supported separatists. Markets initially traded lower on the...

Longer-term municipal bonds with maturities of around 15 years to 25 years looked very attractive at the beginning of the year as they yielded the same or more than comparable taxable bonds. That's rare. Normally tax-free bonds yield less than comparable taxable bonds in nominal terms,...

The previous governor of Michigan should have placed Detroit in bankruptcy years ago, according to Reuters financial blogger Cate Long. “It was a really bad move to let it fester as long as it did,” she told Benzinga. Long writes about retail fixed income markets, including...

In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Mike Cherney reported that investors were buying up municipal bonds due to yields increasing. "Municipal bonds," he wrote, "have long attracted individual, or retail, investors because interest payments from them are generally exempt from income...

Detroit, once the fourth-largest U.S. city, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection Thursday, marking the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. The Motor City has $18.5 billion in long-term debt and news of Detroit's bankruptcy has predictably cast a dark cloud over the already fragile...

One of investors' favorite asset classes in 2012 got cold dose of fiscal cliff reality on Wednesday as municipal bond ETFs faltered on news both parties are willing to change the tax-exempt status of municipal-bond interest in an effort to dodge the fiscal cliff. As was reported earlier this year...