Even though the S&P 500 has been treading water over the last few days, spreads on high yield debt continue to sink like a stone. Based on the Merrill Lynch High Yield Master Index, spreads on high yield bonds are now down more than 56% from their peak back in December, and over 7% in the last week. At a level of 956 basis points over comparable Treasuries, spreads are currently the lowest they've been since the initial days following the Lehman bankruptcy. In order to reach 'pre-Lehman' levels (854 basis points), high yield spreads now only need to fall another 10.7%.
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