high yield

Right now, everyone is talking about an emerging markets crisis due to the simultaneous turmoil in several emerging markets. I am not concerned about this being a full-blown crisis yet. At the same time, I do want to use this as a launchpad…

US corporate credit is outperforming other forms of credit assets such as commercial real estate. A good way to see that outperformance vs. global risk assets is in the components of the Credit Suisse Risk Appetite Index. For the first time…

This summer's growing fears of the Fed's impending policy change hit a number of fixed income sectors quite hard. While corporate credit was the best performer on a relative basis, it too was hit by some sell-off and a decline in liquidity.…

The higher demand for leveraged loans is helping to gradually increase leverage of buyout transactions. But a more alarming trend is the sharp relaxation of lending terms - the so-called "cov-lite" (covenant-light) deals. Over 70% of recent…

Here is further evidence that in this environment treasuries are driving "risk asset" valuations. Corporate HY bond spreads are now positively correlated to treasury yields. That's quite unusual because traditionally when treasury yields…

Emerging economies are reeling as rising US bond yields are squeezing the most vulnerable and funding intensive parts of the market. But the squeeze in EM yields is merely an hors d'oeuvre to what is likely waiting in the wings.

Bill Gross' latest investment outlook is up at PIMCO and he echoes the theme everyone is now talking about - irrational exuberance. He goes into great depth, saying that we are at about 6 on a scale of one to ten when measuring asset price…

Sub-investment-grade loans continue to perform well, driven by demand for floating rate product. As an example, the chart below compares the performance of Invesco's "Senior Income" fund (VVR) - which mostly holds loans of…

Last Tuesday I said then that the debt ceiling fight would come first but that default on US public debt would be a step too far - and so Republicans would capitulate, forcing them to put their efforts into the sequester cuts. The biggest…

By Niels Jensen The Absolute Return Letter, December 2012 “It’s one thing to have an opinion on the macro, but something very different to act as if it’s correct.” -Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital Management It can be a frustrating, and…