High Yield Spreads Hit Highest Levels Since 2002

Yesterday's increase in anxiety over the stability of financial assets propelled the spreads on high yield bonds to spike to their highest levels since 2002.  According to the Merrill Lynch Index of High Yield Bonds, junk bonds are now yielding 905 basis points (bps) more than Treasuries of similar duration.  Since bottoming last Summer, spreads have widened by 275%.  Interestingly, while it seems bad now, spreads are still 20% below their peaks from 2002.

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Comments

[reph:]

Well, a 10% yield still sucks if you will lose 20% of your capital from defaults, plus 10% from inflation caused by the govt bail out printing press.

2008 Sep 17 12:04 AM