High-yield continued to come under pressure yesterday to start the new week amid weak stocks, plunging oil and more redemptions from retail mutual and exchange traded funds. The yield-to-worst/spread on the Bank of America High-Yield Index each widened 5bps Monday to close at 6.06%/+412bps now wider by 49bps/57bps since hitting year to date lows in early March. The primary market was quiet and tentative Monday after pricing seven deals for $4.185 billion last week. Oil prices remained weak, dropping 0.5% on the day, down 2% over the last six sessions and down 13% from on 18-month high of $54.45 over the past four weeks. US Treasuries continued to move higher as haven assets gained ground, with the yield on the 10yr and 5yr note are down 9bps and 10bps, respectively, in the past six sessions. Outflows continue to hamper the high yield bond asset class, with Lipper estimating a $500 million move to the sideline WTD (reporting week runs Thursday to Wednesday). This morning US markets are little changed as investors weigh whether this selloff stemming from uncertainty around US policy has further to go. Oil is trading up nearly 1% in early trading, easing some of the recent pressure on the high-yield energy sector while the rest of the market trades relatively flat. No new issues are slated to price today.

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch US 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. Yield referenced is the yield-to-worst and spread referenced is the spread-to-worst.