As the fourth quarter of 2017 came to a close, investment grade corporate bond spreads narrowed to the tightest levels of the year, and the lowest since 2007i. The Bloomberg Barclays US IG Corporate Bond Index OAS started the year at 1.22% and finished at 0.93%, which means that, on balance, credit spreads for the […]

The third quarter of 2017 was a reprise of what we experienced in the first two quarters of the year investment grade corporate bond yields were lower and credit spreads were tighter. As far as fundamentals are concerned, the majority of investment grade corporate issuers are displaying earnings growth and balance sheets are generally in […]

The second quarter of 2017 saw a continuation of the prevailing trend of tighter credit spreads across the US corporate bond market. This trend of tighter spreads, which has been unabated for nearly 16 months, has been a significant contributing factor to the overall positive performance of the Investment Grade corporate bond market during that […]

After a very volatile end to the year in 2016, the first quarter of 2017 saw a much more benign movement in interest rates and corporate bond yields as most fixed income markets stabilized after a difficult fourth quarter. During the first quarter of 2017, Treasury yields traded within a fairly narrow, 24 bps range. […]

Corporate Bond investors are compensated for two risks; interest rate risk and credit risk. The first, interest rate risk, is approximated by US Treasury yields. The second, credit risk, is the remuneration for the business risk of the underlying company; this remuneration is expressed as the premium received in excess of the US Treasury yield. […]

Corporate Bond investors are compensated for two risks; interest rate risk and credit risk. The first, interest rate risk, is approximated by US Treasury yields. The second, credit risk, is the remuneration for the business risk of the underlying company; this remuneration is expressed as the premium received in excess of the US Treasury yield. […]