Struggling borrowers and once-distressed issuers may be all that’s left for investors looking to juice returns in a market where bonds are now “high yield” in name only, Bloomberg News reported. The relentless hunt for risk assets pushed yields on junk bonds below 4% for the first time in the market’s history on Monday. The tidal wave of demand has slashed borrowing costs and opened up financing avenues for even the least credit-worthy firms, handing them an unprecedented opportunity to raise cash. Some $855 billion of junk-rated corporate debt, or around 58% of the entire market, is now trading at a yield of under 4%, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Less than 1% of all bonds in the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Bond Index are below 70 cents on the dollar. Meanwhile, yields on bonds in the riskiest CCC bucket are now lower than the debt’s average coupon the first time since 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
