Porter & Co.

Deutsche Bank strategists Jim Reid and Steve Caprio just wrote the bank’s annual default study, now in its 25th year. Last year’s, correctly, called for the end of the ultra-low default era, though the current numbers are certainly not terrible. The U.S. high-yield bond default rate through April rose to 2.1% from 1.1%, and U.S.

US corporate bankruptcies crept higher in May over the prior month as higher interest rates and a slowing economy are pushing many companies over the edge. S&P Global Market Intelligence recorded 54 corporate bankruptcy filings during May, a slight rise from 52 April. In the first five months of the year, 2023 has recorded more

David Daglio, the former chief investment officer of Mellon Investments, is on a $250 million fund-raising drive to power his new bearish investment fund that’s going all-in on credit market stress.  The veteran reckons an oncoming US recession will spark a fresh wave of corporate downgrades and debt defaults, with risk premiums for investment-grade firms

The prospect of higher-for-longer interest rates ratchets up the risk that a sharp spike in debt maturities in 2024 and 2025 will have to be refinanced at much higher costs, raising the potential for defaults. Some $106.7 billion of speculative-grade nonfinancial debt matures in 2023, according to S&P Global Ratings. That more than doubles to