Fund outflows in the municipal bond asset class, in part driven by the Detroit bankruptcy, pushed municipal bond performance down in July according to the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index.
- Particularly hard hit was Puerto Rico. The S&P Municipal Bond Puerto Rico Index was down over 4.1% in July (down 6.61% YTD). State specific municipal bond mutual funds with large percentage of Puerto Rico paper due to triple tax-exemption will have felt the pain.
- Investment grade munis tracked in the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index recorded a negative 1.08% return in July (down 3.87% YTD). Shorter municipal bonds tracked in the S&P Short Term National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index saw positive returns of 0.27% for July helping to hold those bonds in positive territory for the year to date.
- In the high yield sectors of the municipal bond market, tobacco settlement bond were hardest hit hard in July as the S&P Municipal Bond Tobacco Index was down 3.8% for the month and is down 7.12% YTD.
Other Sectors and Asset classes: | ||||||
July 2013 |
YTD | |||||
S&P Municipal Bond California Index |
-0.95% |
-3.64% | ||||
S&P Municipal Bond Illinois Index |
-1.23% |
-3.70% | ||||
S&P Municipal Bond Michigan Index |
-1.28% |
-3.87% | ||||
S&P Municipal Bond New York Index |
-0.81% |
-3.45% | ||||
S&P Municipal Bond Puerto Rico |
-4.18% |
-6.61% | ||||
S&P Municipal Bond High Yield |
-2.12% |
-3.58% | ||||
Investment Grade Corporate Bonds | ||||||
S&P U.S. Issued Inv Grade Corp Bond Index |
+0.68% |
-2.47% | ||||
High Yield Corporate Bonds | ||||||
S&P U.S. Issued High Yield Corp Bond Index |
+1.70% |
+2.88% | ||||
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