The high-yield market remained firm throughout the week, pushing yields and spreads to levels not seen since mid-June 2015 as retail funds reported more inflows, oil continued to climb, closing at a two-month high, and the search for yield remained intact.  The yield and spread on the Bank of America High-Yield Index (BAML) tightened 14bps/19bps this week to close at 6.40%/+515bps, respectively. For perspective, the yield to worst on the Index is now 370bps tighter from the YTD wide of 10.10% on Feb 11^th. WTI closed at $48.52 vs $44.49 the previous Friday, up 9% and at its highest level since July 5^th.

High-yield mutual and exchange traded funds reported an inflow of $888 million for the week ended Aug 17, the second consecutive weekly inflow, but the pace slowed from last week’s $1.65 billion influx. The YTD total inflows stands at $9.6 billion after this week’s report. Issuance started to wind down for the summer last week with 12 deals for $5.62 billion versus $6.66 billion the previous week and $7.25 the week prior to that. The next two weeks are expected to be very slow moving into the long Labor Day weekend. Month to date 36 deals for $19.535 billion in proceeds have priced, pushing the YTD total to 226 deals for $153.26 billion in proceeds.

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.