via WSJ:
No U.S. company rated below investment grade has issued bonds since November—the longest stretch without a high-yield sale in more than two decades—reflecting investors’ concerns about market volatility and the durability of the long-running expansion.
December was the first month since 2008 without a junk-bond sale, according to Dealogic. Thursday is on pace to mark 41 days without a deal, the longest stretch in data going back to 1995. Volatility in financial markets, uncertainty about the economy and the recent drop in…
No U.S. company rated below investment grade has issued bonds since November—the longest stretch without a high-yield sale in more than two decades—reflecting investors’ concerns about market volatility and the durability of the long-running expansion.
December was the first month since 2008 without a junk-bond sale, according to Dealogic. Thursday is on pace to mark 41 days without a deal, the longest stretch in data going back to 1995. Volatility in financial markets, uncertainty about the economy and the recent drop in oil pricesare discouraging riskier companies from issuing debt and investors from buying it, analysts say.
Slack investor demand recently lifted the premium, or spread, that companies with junk credit ratings have to pay over risk-free government debt to the highest level in more than two years. The corresponding tumble in high-yield bond prices last quarter erased investors’ gains in what had been one of the few bright spots in the bond market in the first nine months of last year.
Junk-rated companies haven’t been completely absent from the debt markets. Issuance of so-called leveraged loans totaled $25 billion in November and December, according to LCD, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence. But that was still a significant slowdown from previous months.
this is probably not good pic.twitter.com/PxYfrnEczx
— Alastair Williamson (@StockBoardAsset) January 10, 2019
AC