High yield rebounded over the past week, making up for half of March’s losses, as oil rallied four of the week’s five sessions, rate concerns eased and inflows returned to the asset class. The yield-to-worst/spread on the Bank of America High-Yield Index (BAML) tightened 13bps/15bps over the week to close at 5.88%/+392bps. WTI closed at $50.60, up 5.5% for the week. The US 10yr Treasury note closed at 2.39% versus 2.41% last week and a YTD high/low of 2.63%/2.38%.

Investors returned to the high-yield market last week as Lipper reported a small inflow into high-yield mutual and exchange traded funds totaling $248 million for the week ended March 29, the second consecutive weekly inflow, reversing course after an outflow totaling $5.68 billion for the week ended March 15, the second largest on record. The high-yield primary market remained active with 14 new deals pricing for $7.33 billion in proceeds for the week. All of the week’s deals were for refinancing or repaying existing debt; none were for acquisitions, to pay a cash dividend or fund an LBO. The final tally for the month was 71 deals for $42.165 billion in proceeds, making the Q1 total 144 deals for $81.225 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.  Fund flow data according to weekly reporters to Lipper for the week running Thursday to the following Wednesday.