HIX News and Press, Western Asset High Income Fund II Inc. From 04/22/21

The average CCC-or-below rated junk bonds have yielded between 7.09% and 7.16% over the past two weeks, a new all-time record low. AMC Entertainment, which has been talking about how it is trying to stave off a bankruptcy filing, issued $500 million of secured notes in April 2020 to g...

In today’s low-yield landscape, income investors find themselves depending on higher-yielding investments such as bank loans, high-yield bonds and dividend-paying equities. Reaching for yield can be especially dangerous for income investors because of sequence risk - the risk o...

The bond market is partying like it's 1999, and there is no end in sight. Despite wide spreads and tight spreads, bonds still need to be bought by insurance companies, money managers, university endowments and other institutions that have ratings partially based upon their bond positi...

A normal corporate high-yield allocation in client accounts if you look across model portfolios is roughly 10%-15%. The clients that can handle that risk have been closer to 20% (or more) for most of 2020, but that overweight is now being reduced. With most macroeconomic and forecasti...

The first quarter of 2021 brought what the Asset Allocation Committee expected, and as it looks to the next six to 12 months, it faces two questions. Do we think the economy will overheat, pushing bond yields to levels that unsettle equity markets or even force central banks to stifle...

Initial signs may appear as base effects and higher commodity prices push headline inflation in advanced economies temporarily higher. With massive stimulus funds sloshing around the global economy, it's prudent to be prepared - and that means staying active. With the right strate...

With a broad-based economic reopening coming closer into focus, investors are planning for the next stage in the cycle. Our K2 Advisors team believes geographical, asset class and sector rotations will be key to driving returns over the next 12 months. We expect hedge-fund manager...

Higher yields have so far left the credit market largely unscathed, but they have changed the balance of opportunity. Against this year's early-cycle background, we anticipate further tailwinds for the lower-rated, more economically sensitive part of the credit market. Right now, ...

The jarring retreat in global bond markets this year has provoked comparisons to the mid-2013 Taper Tantrum, when the Fed hinted at the prospect of scaling back its QE program. While today's upheaval shares many similarities with that earlier event, there are also some notable differe...

Considering the major jump in volatility at the end of February, for our latest survey we sought an updated consensus over the managers' thoughts on the speed of economic recovery. Additionally, we asked what their inflation expectations going forward are, and whether higher rates in ...