July 8, 2020 – Data by JP Morgan and Bloomberg found that taxable municipal bonds returned 8.5% in the first half of 2020, outperforming many asset classes including U.S. agencies, mortgage backed securities and investment grade corporate debt.

The only two asset classes that bested taxable municipals were the NASDAQ-100 and U.S. Treasuries.

Tax-exempt investment grade munis returned 2.1% on a gross basis and 3.5% on a tax-equivalent basis.

Returns include coupon and price changes. The list of returns by asset class is provided below:

NASDAQ-100 – 16.9%
U.S. Treasury – 8.7%
Taxable Municipal – 8.5%
U.S. Agency – 5.1%
U.S. Investment Grade Corporate Debt – 5.0%
Tax-Exempt Municipal – 3.5% tax-equivalent return (assumes 40.8% federal rate)
U.S. Asset-Backed Securities – 3.3%
Tax-Exempt Investment Grade Municipal – 2.1% gross return
Muni High-Yield – (2.6%)
S&P 500 – (3.1%)
Dow Jones Industrial – (8.4%)
Russell 2000 – (13.0%)

Contact Jenny Lee at JLee@buymuni.com.