Following the steep sell-off in the high-yield debt market that may have been overdone, junk bond exchange traded fund investors saw a buying opportunity and quickly jumped back into speculative-grade debt.
Global ETFs that track non-investment grade obligations brought in $371 million in new money Monday, Bloomberg reports. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: HYG), one of the more popular junk bond ETF plays, led gains with $19 billion in new money coming in, one of its biggest inflows in almost seven weeks.
The heavy interest may hint at the ongoing faith bond investors have for speculative-rated debt or it may just reflect the ongoing demand for high-yield assets in face of a stubbornly low yielding environment, with yields on benchmark 10-year notes at 2.36%.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS Group AG analysts argued in recent research notes the sell-off was a correction rather than the result of a sustained slump, which skeptics have warned to this year’s rally. According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, high-yield bond funds experienced $6.7 billion in outflows in the week ended November 15, the third highest outflows on record.