El mercado de bonos anticipo la caida
Bonds Market Saw Global Selloff Coming
Some bond veterans say softness in investment-grade and junk bonds was ‘canary in the coal mine’
SandRidge Energy had one of the corporate bond issues that foreshadowed the overall drop in equities later in the year. Here, a SandRidge Energy rig pumps oil near Anthony, Kan. ENLARGE
SandRidge Energy had one of the corporate bond issues that foreshadowed the overall drop in equities later in the year. Here, a SandRidge Energy rig pumps oil near Anthony, Kan. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
By GREGORY ZUCKERMAN and MIKE CHERNEY
Updated Aug. 24, 2015 4:47 p.m. ET
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As global stock markets tumble and analysts fret over the health of economies such as China and Brazil, bond investors are saying once again, we told you so.
Corporate-bond markets have been showing signs of weakness this summer, even before major stock indexes plunged in recent days. While there are no signs so far that the global stock rout is turning into a broader crisis, some analysts say the bond market often does a better job than the stock market anticipating economic turns and that investors should focus on debt-market trends for signs of when stability will return.
“Credit markets led stocks in 2000 and 2008,” said James Bianco, president of Bianco Research LLC. He said credit spreads, reflecting companies’ borrowing costs relative to the government’s, have been widening, or increasing, for a year and are “showing no signs of stopping.” Mr. Bianco added that “something is not right” in the world.
There are good reasons investors tended to ignore the warning signs from high-grade and junk bonds this year, despite the market’s solid record of predicting problems. For one thing, stocks were climbing. And much of the troubles in corporate bonds seemed due to tumbling energy prices, which were pressuring debt of companies in that business. About 20% of the junk-bond market is made up of energy-related companies, according to some estimates.
‘The equity market has been catching up with the sloppiness of the junk market.’
—Ken Monaghan of Amundi Smith Breeden
Surging sales of corporate bonds amid low interest rates was another reason to ignore problems in the bond market. Some said price weakness was simply a result of this surge of supply. Meanwhile, investors have been favoring securities that offered higher yields than government debt and were snapping up new corporate bonds.
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Still, the bond market’s bearishness this year was corroborated by unease in various commodity markets, in which oil, copper and some other commodities have been under pressure for much of the year.
Now, some bond veterans say the softness in investment-grade and junk bonds was a canary in the coal mine and that bond investors, once again, have demonstrated an ability to anticipate global economic shifts better than stock investors.
“The equity market has been catching up with the sloppiness of the junk market,” said Ken Monaghan, head of global high yield at Amundi Smith Breeden, which oversees about $9 billion.
Junk-bond prices began falling in April, decreasing roughly 5.7% from 101.1 cents on the dollar to 95.3 cents on Friday, according to Barclays figures. Stocks, however, kept rising. By mid-May, the S&P 500 was up 3.5% on the year to 2130.82, though the stock index is down 11.2% since then, to 1893.21.
As of Friday, U.S. junk bonds were down 0.07% on the year, a figure that reflects interest payments and price changes, according to the S&P U.S. Issued High Yield Corporate Bond Index. Yields have increased from about 6.5% at the beginning of the year to about 7.2% as of Friday, according to the index, indicating lower prices.
Junk bonds were down further on Monday. The SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF, which tracks the market, shed 1.2% Monday, according to FactSet.
Some junk bonds have fared better than others. As of Friday, bonds from energy companies are down 10.1% this year, reflecting price changes and interest payments. But debt from junk-rated firms excluding energy are up 1.8%, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Yields on energy bonds have soared to 12.1% from 9.1% at the end of last year, but excluding energy firms, yields are a more modest 6.4%, up from 6%.
Rising yields have put a damper on bond issuance, with junk-rated oil and gas firms selling $31.2 billion in new debt so far this year, compared with $41.5 billion at this time last year. Companies in other sectors have sold $180.4 billion, compared with $183.7 billion at this time last year, according to Dealogic figures.
Investors have acted accordingly, yanking about $3 billion from high-yield mutual funds this year, according to Thomson Reuters unit Lipper. Should the trend continue, it would be the third year in a row that investors pulled cash out of high-yield mutual funds. Before 2013, there hadn’t been a net outflow in high-yield mutual funds since 2005, according to Lipper.
Veteran junk-bond analyst Martin Fridson, chief investment officer of Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors LLC, says the high-yield market is close to fair value, but isn’t at attractive levels. Junk bonds, which have yields almost six percentage points above comparable Treasury yields, would need to yield more than seven points before the junk market is a buy, Mr. Fridson says.
Defaults are also beginning to increase. The trailing 12-month default rate for high-yield firms globally increased to 2.4% in July from 2.3% in June, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The oil and gas sector has accounted for a quarter of the year’s defaults, with metals and mining recording 20% of defaults year to date.
“The high-yield bond market is past its prime as far as the current recovery is concerned,” said John Lonski, chief financial-markets economist at Moody’s Analytics.
Still, Mr. Lonski said the junk-bond market isn’t “flashing red” yet. Moody’s is predicting that the global default rate will end 2015 at 2.7%, which would be below the historical average of 4.5%.
“It’s more flashing amber,” Mr. Lonski said. “But again, this is no time for complacency.”
Write to Gregory Zuckerman at
gregory.zuckerman@wsj.com and Mike Cherney at
mike.cherney@wsj.com