From Wolf Richter at wolfstreet.com:
“Large amounts of potential and realized losses”: Moody’s
The US junk-bond market, after years of record-breaking issuance, has nearly doubled to $1.8 trillion since late 2008, one of the miracles the Fed’s QE and ZIRP performed. Those were the good times. Now Fed-blinded investors are cracking open their eyes.
It didn’t help that the week was punctuated by some juicy bankruptcies, including steelmaker Essar Steel Algoma, which filed in the US and Canada – for the second time in two years and for the third in 25 years – as it struggles with over $1 billion in debt. And Millennium Health, a malodorous mess I wrote about in July [“Leveraged Loan” Time Bomb Goes Off, JP Morgan Did It].
Energy junk bonds are sinking deeper into the mire. For example, natural-gas driller Chesapeake Energy’s 6.625% notes due in 2020 fell 7 points last week to 58 cents on the dollar. Or the misbegotten Occidental Petroleum spin-off California Resources; according to S&P Capital IQ LCD, its 6.00% notes due 2024 dropped to 64.50 cents on the dollar.
Beyond energy, specialty chemicals maker Hexion’s 6.625% notes due 2020 fell to about 81 cents on the dollar. And Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, based in Ireland, with its US headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, got hit by a tweet from short-seller Citron Research, after it took a break from eviscerating Valeant. As Mallinckrodt’s shares plunged, its 5.625% notes due 2023 dropped from 94 before the tweet into “price discovery,” with quotes around 85.
When tire-maker Titan International reported sharply declining revenues, its 6.875% secured notes due 2020 fell three points to 82.25. Scientific Games, which caters to lottery and gambling organizations, also reported crummy quarterly results; its 10% notes due 2022 plunged six points early in the week, to about 81.
Then there was Men’s Wearhouse whose blood-soaked investors are ruing the day it acquired Jos. A. Bank. Its shares have been getting hammered relentlessly since Friday a week ago, and its bonds are now down to 85 cents on the dollar.
Sprint’s 7.88% notes due 2023 plunged over 5 points to 84.50 cents on the dollar. Satellite communications company Intelsat Jackson, the US subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Intelsat, is edging closer to the brink, with its 7.75% notes due 2021 dropping nearly 5 points to 53 cents on the dollar.
You get the idea. S&P Capital IQ in its LCD HY Weekly described the junk-bond debacle this way:
Bad news amid low-volume, jittery market conditions led to some big downside movers again this week. Broad momentum was also negative amid signs of retail cash outflows from the asset class and higher underlying US Treasury rates after the blow-out November jobs data skewered bonds.
To continue reading: Junk Bonds Go To Heck
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