Junk Bonds Are Tanking and Icahn Says Meltdown `Just Beginning'

December 13, 2015

New York (Dec 13)  A day after a prominent Wall Street firm shocked investors by freezing withdrawals from a credit mutual fund, things only got nastier in the junk-bond market. Prices on the high-risk securities sank to levels not seen in six years and, to add to the growing sense of alarm, billionaire investor Carl Icahn said the selloff is only starting.

“The meltdown in High Yield is just beginning," Icahn, who’s been betting against the high-yield market, wrote on his verified Twitter account Friday.

Icahn’s comments come as junk-bond investors, already stung by the worst losses since 2008, are the most nervous they’ve been in three years after Third Avenue Management took the rare step of freezing withdrawals from a $788 million credit mutual fund.

The risk premium on the Markit CDX North American High Yield Index, a credit-default swaps benchmark tied to the debt of 100 speculative-grade companies, rose 36 basis points to 514.52 basis points, the highest since December 2012. BlackRock’s iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF, the largest fund of its kind, fell to the lowest levels since 2009.

The move by Third Avenue, announced on Dec. 9, is the latest omen of stress in a market already beaten down by a prolonged slump in oil prices that has battered the energy sector. The news came as appetite for risk globally is souring as the countdown to the Federal Reserve’s probable interest-rate increase sparked a selloff in equities and other risk assets.

"The timing could not be worse," said Peter Tchir, head of macro strategy with Brean Capital LLC in New York. "Everyone is already nervous about liquidity, oil, the Fed hike -- and you get this extreme event on top of it all. There is a lot of confusion. It’s put people on edge."

Oil declined to the lowest level since 2008, exacerbating losses in high-yield energy debt, which makes up 12 percent of the broader market.

‘Heavy’ Sentiment

Market woes have seen outflows from U.S. high-yield bond funds running at the fastest pace in more than a year as U.S. junk debt has declined 3.6 percent, the first annual loss since 2008, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch Indexes.

"Sentiment is heavy," said Jerome Conner, who helps oversee about $52.9 billion as portfolio manager and senior investment analyst at Federated Investors Inc. Falling oil prices continue to weigh on markets, and "people see the Third Avenue headline and that contributes to the negative sentiment in the market," he said.

The step Third Avenue took is unusual for a mutual fund, which typically offers daily liquidity to investors, and comes after regulators raised concerns that some mutual funds are investing in assets that could be hard to sell in a market rout. David Barse, Third Avenue’s chief executive officer, said blocking redemptions was necessary to avoid fire sales.

‘Liquidity Problem’

The fund, which had $3.5 billion in assets as recently as July of last year, suffered almost $1 billion in redemptions this year through November. The Third Avenue fund lost 13 percent in the past month and is down 27 percent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Assets have declined to $788 million as of Dec. 8 as clients pulled an estimated $979 million this year through November, according to Morningstar Inc.

"It’s significantly bad news for the market, and another straw on the camel’s back," said Martin Fridson, a money manager at Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors LLC. "It’s not typical, but it raises the question: Can this happen to the next-worst fund? You just don’t know. It certainly doesn’t encourage people to put money in, and that just exacerbates the liquidity problem there."

The weakness in the market comes as credit quality in speculative-grade debt is falling. For every junk-bond issuer that had its rating boosted this year, two have been downgraded, a ratio not seen since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

And companies are increasingly defaulting on their debt. Swift Energy Co.’s failure to make an $8.9 million interest payment last week raised the global tally of defaults to 102 issuers, a figure last exceeded in 2009, according to Standard & Poor’s.

Bonds of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. are also plunging. The copper producer’s $2 billion of 3.55 percent notes due 2022 dropped 2.5 cents Friday to 58 cents on the dollar, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. They yield 13.9 percent.

Notes of mining company Anglo American Capital Plc also slid. It’s $650 million of 4.875 percent notes maturing in 2025 fell 7.25 cents on Friday to 60 cents on the dollar, according to Trace. They yield 12.1 percent.

Source: Bloomburg

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