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| BondsOnline.com: instant access to and extensive coverage of over 3.5 million stocks, bonds, indexes and other securities covering major and emerging markets and exchanges across the globe. |
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| Bonds Online |
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| 5/10/2013Market Performance |
| Municipal Bonds |
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S&P National Bond Index
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3.00% |
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S&P California Bond Index
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2.96% |
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S&P New York Bond Index
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3.13% |
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S&P National 0-5 Year Municipal Bond Index
|
0.70% |
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| S&P/BGCantor US Treasury Bond |
400.09 |
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| Income Equities: |
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| Preferred Stocks |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index
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848.03 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (CAD)
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636.26 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR)
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1,701.05 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR) (CAD)
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1,276.26 |
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| REITs |
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S&P REIT Index
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174.07 |
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S&P REIT Index (TR)
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425.30 |
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| MLPs |
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S&P MLP Index
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2,469.58 |
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S&P MLP Index (TR)
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5,428.50 |
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See Data
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Rise Of The ‘B’ Rated Company As Dominant Rating Category |
NEW YORK Jan. 4, 2007--A gradual but dramatic shift in U.S. corporate credit quality has occurred over the past two decades, a period during which speculative-grade 'B' category credit ratings have emerged as the largest rating category and displaced the 'A' category investment-grade ratings that previously dominated the U.S. corporate credit landscape a couple of decades ago. In a report titled "The Rise Of 'B' Rated Companies And Their Staying Power As An Asset Class," Standard & Poor's Ratings Services chronicles this change and outlines the broader trends that brought it about, illustrated with company-specific examples.
More than 1,000 'B' category issuers have tapped the credit market since the year 2000, which is one of the biggest trends in the shift toward lower credit quality. Through the 1970s, 'B' rated companies generally arrived at those ratings as 'fallen angels,' or previously investment-grade credits that were downgraded to speculative-grade ratings, but the majority of new issuers in present times first enter the credit markets with speculative-grade ratings.
The leveraged buyout (LBO) craze of the 1980s was a strong contributor to the rise of the 'B' rated company. Many highly rated companies were converted to speculative-grade, or "junk" credits through the LBO. By the end of that decade, this process helped transformed the credit profile of Corporate America into one that would be dominated by high-yield credits. The 'B' rating category would be Standard & Poor's largest by the end of the 1980s, in a universe that was dominated by the 'A' category less than 10 years earlier.
"The U.S. credit markets have come a long way since the Chryslers, Wilson Foods, and PanAms of the world represented Standard & Poor's 'B' rated credits," said Nicholas Riccio, managing director and author of the report.
"However, if history has taught us anything, the 'B' seems to be here to stay. A surge in defaults that we would expect to accompany a turn in the credit cycle would cause the market to pause a bit, and Standard & Poor's believes we're likely to hit one of these periods toward the end of 2007. But after being counted out in the early 1990s and again in the early part of this decade, the high-yield market has roared back, and some would argue it has become even stronger."
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| Stuff to look at |
Yield and Income Newsletter: A must have for income investors. subscribe NOW
S&P Commentary and Newsletters: S&P
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| BondsOnline Advisor |
Income Security Recommendation January 2013 Issue.
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