Weekly Municipal Recap: High Yield Leads Performance While Intermediate Flows Surge

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Weekly Channel Summary

The Municipal ETF channel continues to show significant scale and investor interest, ending the week with approximately $189B in total Assets Under Management (AUM). Currently, the channel comprises 134 ETFs managed by 48 unique issuers. Flow activity remains robust as the segment captured $2.18B in net new money over the past five days. This strong weekly performance contributes to a Year-to-Date (YTD) flow of $3.89B and a staggering $41.70B in total inflows over the past year, highlighting the sustained demand for tax-exempt income solutions.

This Week’s Performance Leaders and Laggards

The municipal market saw positive movement across all major duration and credit segments this week. The High Yield category emerged as the top performer with a Week-to-Date (WTD) return of 0.23%, also leading on a YTD basis at 0.86%. Conversely, the Long duration category was the week’s laggard, posting a more modest return of 0.07%, though it maintains a solid YTD gain of 0.60%.

Category Performance Snapshot

Category WTD 1 Month 3 Month 6 Month YTD 1 Year
High Yield 0.23% 1.11% 1.51% 6.58% 0.86% 5.28%
Intermediate 0.13% 0.96% 1.36% 5.69% 0.70% 5.68%
Short 0.12% 0.60% 0.96% 2.24% 0.42% 4.31%
Single State 0.11% 0.87% 1.21% 5.70% 0.62% 4.74%
Long 0.07% 0.83% 0.96% 7.41% 0.60% 4.11%

Top & Bottom 5 ETFs by Weekly Performance

Individual fund performance was led by the RTAI (Rareview Tax Advantaged Income ETF), which climbed 1.03%. On the other end of the spectrum, the NMB (Simplify National Muni Bond ETF) saw a decline of -0.48%, and the PZT (Invesco New York AMT-Free Municipal Bond ETF) fell -0.08%.

Ticker Fund Name WTD Performance
Top Performers
RTAI Rareview Tax Advantaged Income ETF 1.03%
XMPT VanEck CEF Muni Income ETF 0.62%
ZTAX X-Square Municipal Income ETF 0.52%
MMMA NYLI MacKay Muni Allocation ETF 0.36%
JHMU John Hancock Dynamic Municipal Bond ETF 0.25%
Bottom Performers
NMB Simplify National Muni Bond ETF -0.48%
PZT Invesco New York AMT-Free Municipal Bond ETF -0.08%
HTAB Hartford Schroders Tax-Aware Bond ETF -0.06%
SCNM Sterling Capital National Municipal Bond ETF 0.00%
MBNE State Street Nuveen Municipal Bond ESG ETF 0.01%

Analyzing the Weekly Flows

The channel recorded total net inflows of $2.176B this week. The Intermediate category continues to be the primary engine of growth, absorbing $1,099M in net flows and bringing its total AUM to $124.9B. The Short duration category also saw significant activity with $628M in inflows. While the broad categories remained positive, specific state-focused segments such as “Ney York” and “New Jersey” experienced slight outflows of $9M and $1M respectively.

Category Flows Summary

Category Fund Count AUM 5 Day 30 Day 90 Day YTD 1 Year
Intermediate 54 $124.9B $1,099M $3,987M $10,983M $2,410M $23,931M
Short 24 $29.8B $628M $1,896M $3,195M $773M $9,102M
High Yield 18 $15.3B $307M $637M $1,485M $378M $5,169M
Single State 28 $14.2B $117M $659M $1,312M $277M $2,880M
Long 9 $4.5B $25M $101M $47M $47M $615M

Top & Bottom 5 ETFs by 5-Day Flow

The JMST (JPMorgan Ultra-Short Municipal Income ETF) led all funds with $395M in weekly inflows. Conversely, the NYM (AB New York Intermediate Municipal ETF) and PWZ (Invesco California AMT-Free Municipal Bond ETF) saw the largest net outflows of $9M and $4M respectively.

Ticker Fund Name 5-Day Flow
Inflows
JMST JPMorgan Ultra-Short Municipal Income ETF $395M
VTEB Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond ETF $309M
SCMB Schwab Municipal Bond ETF $243M
SCNM Sterling Capital National Municipal Bond ETF $166M
HYD VanEck High Yield Muni ETF $161M
Outflows
NYM AB New York Intermediate Municipal ETF -$9M
PWZ Invesco California AMT-Free Municipal Bond ETF -$4M
MMIN NYLI MacKay Muni Insured ETF -$2M
PZT Invesco New York AMT-Free Municipal Bond ETF -$2M
PVI Invesco Floating Rate Municipal Income ETF -$1M

Issuer League Table Update

iShares and Vanguard continue to dominate the municipal landscape, holding market shares of 33.03% and 26.37% respectively. In terms of weekly inflows, JPMorgan took the top spot, gathering $451M, followed closely by Vanguard at $433M. While the major issuers saw strong positive movement, several smaller brands like Mairs & Power and BNY Mellon saw no net weekly flows.

Top 5 Issuers by AUM

Brand Fund Count AUM AUM Market Share
iShares 10 $62.46B 33.03%
Vanguard 8 $49.87B 26.37%
JPMorgan 4 $14.10B 7.46%
SPDR 5 $9.67B 5.11%
Capital Group 3 $8.46B 4.47%

Top & Bottom 3 Issuers by 5-Day Flow

Brand 5-Day Flow
Inflows
JPMorgan $451M
Vanguard $433M
iShares $244M
Outflows
Mairs & Power $0M
BNY Mellon $0M
Aberdeen $0M

For a deeper dive into these trends, access our FREE, in-depth Municipal ETF reports in the right side panel of this page.

Disclosures

This material is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. All investments, including ETFs, involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Investors should consider their investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing.

This analysis was developed by the team at ETF Action. We leverage advanced AI tools to assist in the drafting and refinement of our content, based on our expert prompts, direction, and final review.