HIX News and Press, Western Asset High Income Fund II Inc. From 05/03/20

By Susan Hutman and Robert Hopper The coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc across economies and markets. A wave of rating downgrades, fallen angels and corporate bond defaults has begun - and it could grow into a tsunami before the pandemic recedes. But that doesn't mean invest...

Source: Allenrsmith.com "Putting lipstick on a pig" is an old saying popularized during an Obama campaign event in which he said "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." And that was the first thing that came to mind when the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced it umpteenth Bazoo...

There was one article after another article, every place you looked, that the U.S. equity markets were going to correct anywhere from 25% to 50% down. That has not exactly been the case. The American stock markets have been up and up and up as the wrong focus was used. I have said, countless t...

By enhancing liquidity and improving functionality in the corporate bond markets, new U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) programs have been good news in the short term. Yet a number of unknowns remain regarding the rollout of these programs, and we foresee potentially challenging impacts for more high...

Junk bonds - those rated BB or lower - surged earlier this month as the US Federal Reserve announced it would be buying high yield ETFs for the first time in history. The announcement came on April 9, less than three weeks following the equity market low on March 23. On the news, speculative...

Originally recorded April 6, 2020 First, we have the crippling global pandemic that we're all struggling with, and second, a concurrent collapse in oil prices. The result of this has been a swift and broad-based repricing of risk across all the capital markets, across all sectors, ass...

Who could have seen this coming? It's week 5 of the economic lockdown, and stocks have rallied to August 2019 levels again. If that makes sense to you, then you're smarter than me. To be fair, there is a massive deal of monetary and fiscal stimulus in the market, but the fact is that the Ameri...

The coronavirus outbreak and the effects of COVID-19 have gone deeper and wider than most people would have expected. That applies just as much to markets as anywhere. Whether it's a tech sector that is supporting our new work from home or re-rating as expensive EV/Sales multiples make less se...

The “Great Lockdown” has caused a dramatic drop in 2020 growth expectations from the IMF, which said we are likely to see the worst recession since the Great Depression. But the big news was that the market was up 3% on the back of negative earnings reports from the country...

Marriott (NASDAQ: MAR ) today sold $1.6B in 5-year paper priced to yield 5.75%, reports Bloomberg. The notes are expected to be rated Baa3/BBB- More news on: Marriott International, Inc., iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF, iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF, Co...