FHY News and Press, First Trust Strategic High Income Fund II of Beneficial Interest From 10/04/18

This week it's two very topical developments on the one chart. The Fed has delivered yet another rate hike and shows no signs of slowing down, and importantly - high yield credit spreads have moved to new post-crisis lows. The chart comes from a report on the Fed and markets , in which ...

By Christian Brobst As interest rates normalize, investors are revisiting their asset allocations - and especially their fixed income positions. When it comes to fixed income, many investors may not appreciate the breadth in the asset class and the potential opportunities this diversity pr...

U.S. bonds rated CCC or lower are outperforming higher-rated debt with a 1% total return month-to-date, according to ICE bond index data;  year-to-date return is 5.8%. More news on: iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF, SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF, Credit Suis...

Chesapeake Energy’s (NYSE: CHK ) issue of new bonds yesterday were the most actively traded corporate bonds in the U.S. , an example of the comeback in debt issued by oil and gas companies this year. More news on: Chesapeake Energy Corporation, iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate ...

Even as the Federal Reserve seems intent on raising interest rates, some investors are turning to U.S. high-yield bonds. So just where are we in the credit cycle and is the yield in high yield bonds properly compensating investors for risks? Kim Parlee speaks with Greg Kocik, Managing Dir...

Recently, a growing number of investors and market commentators have been advocating for caution in credit lending - rightfully so, in my opinion. However, despite the publicity this has received in the press, it appears that little has actually been done to clamp down on aggressive lending. P...

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates again later this month, but if that's another signal that headwinds are building for fixed-income securities, the warning isn't resonating in the junk bond market these days. The crowd's appetite for below-investment-grade US debt remai...

"If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you." - Paul Newman Looking at the tentative rebound in gold prices thanks to the fall of the US dollar on conjunction with some respite for some selected Emerging Markets ((EM)) as well as...

The flattening Treasury yield curve is getting a lot of attention, but there's another flattening that is arguably of greater importance: the narrowing return gap between low- and high-risk assets. Jeff explains. The only thing more persistent than the flattening yield curve between two-ye...