Capturing Value in Lower-Rated U.S. High Yield
When evaluating allocations in the current late-cycle environment, the U.S. high yield market remains vastly bifurcated with overvalued BB-rated issues and some deeply discounted weak B- and CCC-rated names. Granted, there are risks to overweighting the lower-quality portion of the market, but given our base case for a prolonged credit cycle, the larger risk to performance could be maintaining overweights to the BB-rated segment of the market, particularly as lower-quality credit spreads imply a far higher default rate than we expect in 2020.