Displaying items by tag: high yield

(New York)

The stock market has been absolutely killed lately, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at bonds. Several high yield indexes have barely budged, despite the big worries over inflation and rates. Why? Aside from some high yield bond mechanics which make them less rate-sensitive, the answer is that investors are very excited about the sector. The market is anticipating a big wave of credit upgrades in the next year, and all investors in the space are trying to buy up the winners (who will jump in value when upgraded).

FINSUM: Earnings are doing well and there is a lot of investor demand for new high yield debt. Junk bonds look like they have a great runway for the rest of the year.

(New York)

Income is both extremely desired, and very hard to achieve in today’s market. Based on the economic data which hit the morning of the 7th, it seems likely to stay that way. So where are the best places to find income? One of the first places investors think of outside of bonds is the dividend aristocrats, but the bad news is they are only yielding 1.9%. If you need more income, check out high yield bond ETFs like the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High-Yield Bond ETF (JNK), which yields 4%. But the best bet is to look at bond closed end funds, for example the DoubleLine Income Solutions Fund run by bond legend Jeffrey Gundlach. The fund yields 7.3%.

FINSUM: Bond closed end funds are great. Many trade at a discount to their NAV and they have very nice yields.

(New York)

There has been a lot going on in the SPAC world, and high yield bonds have been very active lately given the rate environment too. But from a casual glance it would be hard to see that the two have much impact on one another. Yet, as it happens, SPACs are helping strengthen the high-yield bond market. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The wave of cash raised by special-purpose acquisition companies is rolling into the junk debt market, aiding distressed companies and rewarding investors who own their bonds and loans … SPACs, also known as blank-check companies, have issued roughly $100 billion of stock this year, a record, to buy private companies and take them public. Some SPACs are targeting companies with below-investment-grade credit ratings, hoping to use their cash piles to pay down debt and grow the businesses”.

FINSUM: When there is that much money in search of targets, it makes perfect sense that the search would extend into the high yield market.

(New York)

The recovery has boosted the junk bond market as investors saw investment-grade bonds and government debt perform…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(New York)

Despite the big losses in Treasuries, high yield bonds have been doing well, and according to Fidelity that seems likely to continue. Advisors could be forgiven if they are wondering “how?”. The answer is that the big reason bonds are losing is interest rate risk, and it so happens that high yield bonds have some of the lowest interest rate risk around because of their higher coupons and shorter terms. According to Adam Kramer, who managers Fidelity’s Strategic Income Fund, “an economic recovery may be on the horizon and the Fed may avoid tightening monetary conditions for some time”, which he says means the high yield market “could offer investors the best of both worlds in 2021”.

FINSUM: High yield bonds have the lowest exposure to the market’s major risk at the moment and also the upside of an economic recovery. The picture is bright.