HIX News and Press, Western Asset High Income Fund II Inc. From 03/04/21

The high-yield CEF sector has done well though not as well as other sectors in terms of discount returns in the last month (+1.3%). The sector as a whole is near its long-term fair value with a discount of -5%. But with spreads near the pre-COVID tightest levels, there isn't much upsi...

Why the run-up in rates has troubled equity markets more than credit, and why we think that is poised to continue. Since the start of the fourth quarter of 2020, the U.S. 10-year yield has risen by more than 80 basis points while the spread of the ICE Bank of America U.S. Corporate BB...

The recent rise in Treasury yields has spooked the equity markets. This is obvious from the recent performance of the bond markets as compared to the stock markets. Inflation is not the cause of this rise, but rather a combination of the stimulus measures, a rebounding economy, our CO...

These are two options in the high-yield sector that look at least semi attractive at these levels for various reasons. These funds are more hybrid funds like ARDC with some allocation to leveraged loans helping to diversify the portfolio. The high-yield space, as I've noted severa...

Global recovery optimism, especially in the US, is leading to speculation over when the Fed might take its foot off the accelerator and buy fewer Treasuries and Agencies. Increasingly, parallels are being drawn to similar events in 2013. In this Q&A, we look at when such a sha...

Economic growth is returning to almost every country in the world, and almost all commodity prices are rising. The thing to worry about is the direction of fiscal policy, which will almost certainly bring us higher taxes, increased regulatory burdens, and more expensive energy. Fo...

Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC announced today that certain closed end funds have declared their distributions for the months of March, April, and May 2021. The following dates apply to the distribution schedule below: Western Asset Municipal Defined Opportunity Trust I...

It is my opinion, when considering both the inflation component and the credit risk component, that most bonds are not providing any real value currently. One strategy that should be considered is not buying any more bonds at present. The second is to take a careful look at your portf...

Risk assets have compressed in yield against Treasuries, so that any meaningful yield of anything has gotten wrung out of the markets. For the first time ever, yields in the High Yield markets are now less than 4.00%. In other words, you are getting paid about nothing for credit risk....

Returns in the US treasury market have gotten off to a bad start. Long-term US treasuries are already down over 5% YTD, which would be only the second time in the last ten years that the asset class started off the year so poorly. While treasuries have been weak, not all areas of ...