Demand for high-yield paper remained steady throughout Thursday’s session pushing the yield and spread on the Bank of America High-Yield Index tighter for the fourth consecutive day closing at 9.23% and +775bps respectively. With commodity prices showing some sign of stability recently, the high yield asset class had its first weekly inflow of 2016, attracting $883 million in new assets. Treasuries are trading higher this morning after the Bank of Japan moved to a negative interest rate strategy overnight in an effort to encourage banks to lend and support their economy, spurring demand for USD assets and pushing the yield on the US 10-year note to its lowest level since late April. High yield remains well bid this morning to start the last session of the week as buyers continue to selectively add paper.

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch High Yield Index monitors the performance of below investment grade U.S. dollar-denominated corporate bonds publicly issued in the U.S. domestic market.  Index data sourced from Bloomberg. Yield referenced is the yield-to-worst and spread referenced is the spread-to-worst.