(New York)

The stock market has been absolutely killed lately, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at bonds. Several high yield indexes have barely budged, despite the big worries over inflation and rates. Why? Aside from some high yield bond mechanics which make them less rate-sensitive, the answer is that investors are very excited about the sector. The market is anticipating a big wave of credit upgrades in the next year, and all investors in the space are trying to buy up the winners (who will jump in value when upgraded).

FINSUM: Earnings are doing well and there is a lot of investor demand for new high yield debt. Junk bonds look like they have a great runway for the rest of the year.

(New York)

Income is both extremely desired, and very hard to achieve in today’s market. Based on the economic data which hit the morning of the 7th, it seems likely to stay that way. So where are the best places to find income? One of the first places investors think of outside of bonds is the dividend aristocrats, but the bad news is they are only yielding 1.9%. If you need more income, check out high yield bond ETFs like the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High-Yield Bond ETF (JNK), which yields 4%. But the best bet is to look at bond closed end funds, for example the DoubleLine Income Solutions Fund run by bond legend Jeffrey Gundlach. The fund yields 7.3%.

FINSUM: Bond closed end funds are great. Many trade at a discount to their NAV and they have very nice yields.

(New York)

Income is scarce and investors need it more than ever (funny how that happens). Bonds look very risky given the direction of rates. So where can investors turn? Take a look at three different asset classes: blue-chip REITs, preferred shares, and property-backed loans. Blue-chip REITs can be a good investment because they have high yields (e.g. 4%+), but are still quality companies. They are also often trading at a discount because of the pandemic. Check out ticker “0”, Realty Income. Private property loans are another good option, yielding 8-12% , and often having good LTVs of around 60%, which means you have some significant downside protection.

FINSUM: These are some good alternative income options. Our personal favorite are the REITs because of their liquidity, but private property loans are a good option too, especially given the new economic cycle.