Municipal Bonds: Courting Favor

This Municipal Bonds sector report is excerpted from the Third Quarter 2018 Fixed-Income Outlook.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2017–2018 term yielded key federal decisions with sweeping implications for municipal issuers. The Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments may levy and collect taxes from online sales (South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.) and permit sports gambling (Murphy v. NCAA), which should bolster government revenues. More significantly, the Supreme Court found compulsory public-sector union dues for non-union members to be unconstitutional (Janus v. AFSCME). These decisions helped support the market’s positive outlook and outperformance relative to other liquid fixed-income sectors.

After suffering a loss in the first quarter, the Bloomberg Barclays Municipal Bond index posted a 0.87 percent gain in the second quarter. Lower quality underperformed higher quality, but all ratings categories delivered positive returns. AAA-rated bonds gained 0.72 percent, AA-rated gained 0.80 percent, A-rated bonds gained 0.91 percent, and BBB-rated bonds gained 1.41 percent, respectively. Spread compression has been supported by technical factors (i.e., less new issue supply, persistent fund inflows, lower dealer inventories), tax collections growth, rating upgrades exceeding downgrades, and defaults (excluding Puerto Rico) at the lowest levels since 2008.

Longer term, the Supreme Court’s decision on union dues helps alleviate constraints on achieving meaningful pension reform and narrowing funding gaps. Public-sector employees from non-right-to-work states suddenly find themselves in right-to-work jurisdictions and can broadly expect reductions in payrolls and collective negotiating leverage. Pro-union candidates can expect to suffer from diminished influence of unions as a major voting bloc and source of political contributions. Absent state-level Supreme Court decisions, the ruling on Janus v. AFSCME will merely provide measures of rest during the crescendo of pension issues in the United States. Although these cases provided general obligation bond issuers with much-needed flexibility, we remain focused on revenue bonds insulated from inexorable pension liabilities. As the pension underfunding problem grows, we expect risk to be more prominently discounted as the market recalls a key theme of past municipal defaults: politically motivated issuers are more than willing and able to dilute bondholders’ value in favor of retirees.

—James Pass, Senior Managing Director; Allen Li, CFA, Managing Director; Michael Park, Vice President

Important Notices and Disclosures

This article is distributed for informational purposes only and should not be considered as investing advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. It contains opinions of the authors but not necessarily those of Guggenheim Partners or its subsidiaries. The authors’ opinions are subject to change without notice. Information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but are not assured as to accuracy. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Investing involves risk. In general, the value of fixed-income securities fall when interest rates rise. High-yield securities present more liquidity and credit risk than investment grade bonds and may be subject to greater volatility. Asset-backed securities, including mortgage-backed securities, may have structures that make their reaction to interest rates and other factors difficult to predict, making their prices volatile and they are subject to liquidity risk. Investments in floating rate senior secured syndicated bank loans and other floating rate securities involve special types of risks, including credit risk, interest rate risk, liquidity risk and prepayment risk. Guggenheim Investments represents the following affiliated investment management businesses of Guggenheim Partners, LLC: Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, LLC, Security Investors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Investment Advisors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Distributors, LLC, Guggenheim Real Estate, LLC, GS GAMMA Advisors, LLC, Guggenheim Partners Europe Limited, and Guggenheim Partners India Management. ©2018, Guggenheim Partners, LLC. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission of Guggenheim Partners, LLC.

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