美国杠杆贷款的进展

U.S. Leveraged Loans Drop in August for Worst Month of 2019

Loans record third monthly negative return this year

Falling interest rates and credit concerns nip away at returns

By?Lisa Lee

(Bloomberg) –?

U.S. Leveraged loans posted their worst returns of the year in August as lower interest rates dampened investor demand for floating rate debt.

The benchmark?S&P/LSTA Total Return Index?slipped to a negative 0.27% in August. That compared with gains of 0.8% in July and 0.4% a year earlier, and trailed the 0.4% return for?U.S. high-yield bonds?the same month.

Leveraged loans are still up 6.3% for the year, having recovered from the credit carnage at the end of last year. Yet the gains are modest compared to the 11% returns for high-yield this year.

August marks the third month of negative returns this month, following drops of 0.22% in May and 0.17% in March. Rising trade tensions have put some investors off riskier loans, while U.S. rate cuts have made loans less appealing.

With markets eyeing more accommodative policies, there’s little to suggest there will be a reversal of the unending stream of outflows that have plagued leveraged loan funds. So far this year, investors have yanked a total of $26.3 billion from the funds, according to data from Refinitiv’s Lipper.

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