High Yield bond sell off sets record, implies imminent recession

[Hawkowl]

"More flashing red recessionary indicators are coming courtesy of the largely ignored High Yield market, which following a 5.3% decline is, as Bank of America (itself ironically contributing substantially to the blow out) says, is shaping up to be "among the worst months in the HY market's 25 year history, in a bad company of post-Lehman, post-WorldCom, post-9/11, and post-Russia sell-offs. The difference of course is that we did not have the largest bankruptcy in history taking place (LEH or WCOM shared that title at a time), no terror attack, and no outright sovereign default (Russia in Aug ’98). What we did have however, is a global risk-off trade, sparked by concerns that this fragile environment could slip into a double-dip recession as consumer and business confidence fails to sustain repeated beating from sovereign and financial systemic risk issues."

What we also did have is the near end of the modern ponzi economic model, whose viability was once again extended courtesy of a variety of sticky objects thrown at the wall with hopes one sticks. For now the obliteration has been halted, although one thing is undeniable - central planner intervention buys increasingly less and less time. We are confident that August is just the beggining of pain for not only HY, but all other asset classes. And some more ammo for those who like comparing 2011 to 2008: "Parallels are being drawn between today’s environment and that of 2008, given the degree of equity destruction that has taken place across the financial space. Financial CDS – the epitome of ’08 systemic risk – are trading at an average of 190bp in the US, within reach of Oct ’08 levels, and 240bp in Europe, well north of their ’08 wides." What do spreads imply? Nothing short of recession: "The HY index, in the meantime, has widened to 739bp as of close on Thursday, its widest level since Nov 2009. With the spread normally peaking at 1,000bps in full recessionary periods2 (1991 and 2001-02) and bottoming at 250bp in times of strong economic growth, the current level is pricing in an 80% probability of a fullblown contraction in GDP, and a 100% chance of a mild recession."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/one-worst-monthly-sell-offs-high-yield-markets-25-year-history-implies-100-probability-mild-rec

[golfguru]

1. Thanks for posting k&r

[Po_d Mainiac]

2. Got the 'death cross' on the spx also. n/t

[Celebration]

3. the S and P downgrading caused this

Many institutions have to keep a weighting of classes of bonds that may be something like "A". When all the government bonds in their portfolios are downgraded from AAA to AA, that means they have to sell off some of the BBs to maintain a weighted average rating that is mandated.

That is why the downgradng was so damaging. It didn't cause a selloff in government bonds at all, only high yield corporates. It puts a lot of stress on certain companies.

[Hawkowl]

4. Good point!

I hadn't thought of that.