HIX - High Yield Spreads: When Crashing Is A Good Thing
After screaming higher towards the end of 2018 right up through the first couple of days of 2019, high yield spreads have come crashing back down to earth in the last two weeks, falling from a high of 544 basis points (bps) on 1/3 to 440 bps through Thursday. At their highs two weeks ago, spreads were the widest they have been since the summer of 2016 and the highest while moving higher since the middle of 2015 when oil prices were crashing.
In the lower chart, we show the 10-day rate of change of