David Sekera

Investors no longer felt the need to hide in U.S. Treasuries.

Turmoil in the equity market spurred a flight to safety.

Corporate credit spreads on investment-grade corporate bonds held steady and high-yield bonds backed off slightly.

Prices for Italian sovereign bonds dropped precipitously across the board.

As investors chased risk asset prices higher, bond prices in the U.S. Treasury market weakened.

Strong demand easily soaked up the deluge of new issue supply.

Last week was the busiest of the year for new corporate bond issuance.

Volatility brought about by Turkey's chaos has quickly dissipated.

The lira regained some of its lost value against the dollar last week.

With the lira plunging, it becomes more difficult for Turkey to support and repay its sovereign debt.

Corporate Bond Market: Summer Starts to Slip Into Fall

A multitude of concerns kept investment-grade investors at bay in the first half.

GDP growth is likely to keep the Fed on track to raise rates.

Most fixed-income indexes declined in the second quarter as rising interest rates took their toll.

Investment grade struggles while high yield strengthens.

Global asset markets had a wild ride at the beginning of last week as political turmoil roiled Italy's sovereign bond market.

The corporate bond market couldn't maintain momentum in the face of interest-rate increases and new issue supply.

Higher oil prices have bolstered corporate bonds in the energy sector, especially among the lower-rated issuers.

High-yield fund flows seesaw between inflows and outflows.

Volatility dwindled over the course of the week, trading action felt light, and new issue activity was muted.

Although the stock market eked out a gain last week, the S&P 500 is muddling along near the middle of its year-to-date trading range.

Investors tiptoe back into high yield.

It appears that corporate bond investors are becoming more comfortable undertaking credit risk at these levels.

Rising rates and widening credit spreads took their toll in the first quarter of 2018.

Rising interest rates and widening credit spreads have taken their toll.

Several factors have led to this divergence.

The corporate bond market had myriad issues to deal with this past week.

Activity across the fixed-income markets was generally back to normal after a wild ride in early February.

Hotter-than-expected inflation sends short-term rates higher.

The spike in volatility last week drove a "risk off" sentiment among investors, which sent prices of risky assets down across the board.

Corporate credit spreads tightened early in the week but ran into rough seas in the latter half of the week.

The average spread of the Morningstar Corporate Bond Index ended last week at its lowest level since before the global financial credit crisis.

Fixed-income markets were largely unaffected by the looming government shutdown.

Highest weekly high-yield fund inflows over past year and fourth highest over past two years.

Weekly high-yield fund flows end year on positive note, but annual redemptions outpaced inflows.

Fixed income performance was mixed as the yield curve compressed to its flattest level since before the financial crisis.

Action in the new issue market was virtually nonexistent and trading in the secondary market was muted.

Last week, a few stragglers tapped the markets, but the pace of activity in the new issue market has slowed considerably and trading volume dwindled in the secondary markets.

Dipping toes back into the high-yield asset class.

Corporate credit spreads widened, albeit from levels that are still near multiyear lows.

After a short hiatus, mergers and acquisitions are ramping back up.

We also look at third-quarter reports for industrials.

Risk assets continued their unrelenting trend higher last week.

After peaking in February 2016 when oil prices bottomed out, corporate credit spreads have been on a nearly uninterrupted tightening trend.