The Bond Buyer

Muni investors left reeling from a year of political change

The final days of 2017 find municipal bond investors looking back on a year of unprecedented volatility, mostly driven by political change in President Trump's first year in office.

It was a year marked by price fluctuations, yield curve flattening, spread compression, credit quality concerns, supply and demand imbalances, and most of all, political wrangling over tax reform, strategists and fund managers said.

“The political backdrop provided an overriding influence for the municipal bond market in 2017,” said Jeffrey Lipton, head of municipal research and strategy at Oppenheimer & Co.

https://www.bondbuyer.com/news/skimpy-supply-low-yields-and-tax-reform-among-key-impacts