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Asset TV: 2020 Municipal Market Strategy – Opportunities And Considerations
Jeff Johnson, Senior Vice President and National Sales Manager, discusses municipal market conditions and portfolio strategy, including liquidity, yield curve structure, relative value and technical factors.
Review and
Outlook
July 2020
“Consumption-based revenue has held up better than income tax revenue…considerable value can be found in select Sales Tax-backed bonds supported by diverse and broad tax bases…”
Learn MoreJune 2020
“Recent headlines have drawn attention to a severe drop in April 2020 state personal income tax collections…While economic activity has certainly dropped precipitously, timing is also a major factor. A large portion of these declines reflect a deferral of April tax receipts…”
Learn MoreMay 2020
“After heavy lobbying by local governments, the Fed expanded eligibility to counties with populations of more than 500,000 and cities with at least 250,000 residents. The MLF and other Fed programs favor larger issuers over smaller ones…This policy aligns well with Appleton’s preference for large, well-established municipal issuers…”
Learn MoreApril 2020
“Federal stimulus aid will provide a bridge over the near-term for many municipal issuers. Nonetheless, we are also stress-testing liquidity and reserves without factoring in extraordinary support from the Federal government. Our goal is to ensure that our holdings can stand on their own even under a prolonged economic downturn scenario…”
Learn MoreCoronavirus and
the Markets
05.27.2020
Higher Education Bond Issues
“We recently evaluated and ranked all Appleton approved higher education issuers based on demand profile and financial strength. Doing so helps us project how well they are likely to stand up to prolonged adverse conditions.”
Learn More05.06.2020
Municipal Credit Observations
“At Appleton, we have always managed high quality portfolios comprised of what we feel are credit resilient municipal entities. We look for municipal and service essentiality, size and breadth, and revenue diversification. . . we expect all your holdings to remain creditworthy.”
Learn More04.28.2020
Healthcare Revenue Bonds
“Appleton’s Healthcare Revenue bond holdings are comprised of larger systems with diverse revenue streams, balance sheet strength and geographic diversity.”
Learn More04.28.2020
Port Revenue Bonds
“Location, operational strengths, strategic importance and contractual provisions must be considered. We are selectively adding exposure to ports where, in our opinion, a disconnect exists between bond prices and credit fundamentals.”
Learn MoreEconomic and
Market Commentary
02.05.2020
Operating in a Low Yield Environment
“Riding a multi-decade fixed income bull market, municipal bond yields have fallen to levels not seen since the Eisenhower presidency. For those not well versed in American political history, that would be the 1950s, a time period that predates the professional experience of nearly all of today’s financial advisors…”
Learn More11.13.2019
Differentiating Credit Vigilance From Complacency
“All too often favorable capital market conditions have generated a degree of investor and analyst complacency. With municipal credit spreads at near record lows, the margin for safety has been diminished…”
Learn More09.03.2019
Opportunity Zones: A Look at Potentially Winning Models
“Opportunity Zones are fast becoming a real estate development buzzword, as powerful tax incentives unleashed by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act sparks a proliferation of private capital investment into economically stressed census tracts…”
Learn More05.28.2019
Opportunity Zones:
An Impetus for Municipal Credit Enhancement
“As capital flows into Opportunity Zones, we are actively looking for localities with the best prospects … Weeding through Opportunity Zone tracts early in their evolution offers our research team an ability to identify municipal issuers with overlooked future credit prospects…”
Learn MoreQuarterly
Perspectives
Q2 2020
An Age of No Limits
“On April 9th, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell declared that the U.S. central bank was committed to “forcefully, pro-actively, and aggressively” helping the country recover, and that there were “no limits” to the money the Fed could deploy…The eventual implications of these prescriptions remain unknown…”
Learn MoreQ1 2020
What Investors Can Learn from CEOs, Army Rangers, Pilots and Police
“Stress impacts the brain’s cognitive and emotional intelligence, critical abilities needed to make sound decisions. Understanding how this occurs can be highly applicable to individual investors…”
Learn MoreQ4 2019
Forecasting in an Uncertain World
“As we close the door on the 2010s and enter the 2020s, thinking about the risks we know, don’t know, and don’t know we don’t know can help frame market expectations…”
Learn MoreQ3 2019
Demystifying and Demilitarizing Trade
“In a recent speech concerning risks to the US economy, noted economist Robert Shiller discussed the term “trade war” and how its meaning has evolved over time…”
Learn More