The high-yield market traded sideways over the past week amid cautious markets as oil and commodity prices declined and retail funds reported outflows for the first time in a long time. The yield and spread on the Bank of America High-Yield Index (BAML) widened 1bp/12bps over the week to 8.40% and +705bps respectively. Despite the slow week, March posted the best single monthly return for the high-yield asset class since 1991, with the Bank of America High Yield Index finishing the month higher by +4.2%, as retail funds reported record inflows and oil and commodity prices rebounded.

 After six straight weeks of inflows which saw over $13 billion enter the high-yield asset class, retail mutual and exchange traded funds reported outflows for the week ending 3/30 totaling $545 million. Year to date high yield has now recorded a net inflow of $7.7 billion. The primary market had its busiest week of the year pricing seven deals for $8.425 billion, closing out the busiest month of the year as March saw 29 deals for just over $22 billion.

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. BAML HY represents the index yield for the designated date, while return/change represent the index return for the period ending date. Yield referenced is the yield-to-worst and spread referenced is the spread-to-worst.