Reuters
U.S. high-yield corporate bond ETF falls to 8-month low after Powell announcement
Investors looked to shed some risk in the U.S. corporate bond market on Monday, pushing a fund tracking the high-yield sector to its lowest level since March after Jerome Powell’s nomination for a second term as Federal Reserve chair raised expectations of sooner rate hikes. Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research in New York, said there was some shifting out of risk assets as U.S. Treasury yields rose with the two-year yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, topping 0.59%, its highest level since early March 2020. “If the market is correct that the Fed is going to tighten a couple of times next year, then financial conditions are going to get tighter and some of the lower-quality companies in the high-yield market are going to have a tough time,” Jones said.
