Closed-end funds have bounced back, but have further to go, says Roseen

Tom Roseen, head of research services at Lipper Refinitiv, says that closed-end fund discounts currently stand at an average of 8.7 percent, significantly wider than the 5.65 percent of the past but significantly improved from February and March as closed-end funds were hammered during the pre-pandemic market downturn. Roseen notes that convertible-securities funds have been exceptionally strong during the bounce back -- up 25 percent over the last three months -- but that energy MLP funds remain down more than 58 percent and that natural resources funds are down 34 percent as they struggle to regain footing; he expects those trends to continue as the economy and the closed-end space slowly recover.