Alpinum Investment Management

The European credit market continues to exhibit a positive rating migration trend, heavily skewed toward upgrades. Year-to-date, eleven rising stars (issuers whose credit ratings have been upgraded from high yield to investment grade), representing EUR 9.2 billion, crossed over into high grade. Conversely, only three companies suf...

Geopolitics remained central, as the Iran conflict and Strait of Hormuz disruption lifted energy, freight and inflation premia, before a preliminary US-Iran accord reduced tail risks.

The US economy remained an inflationary expansion, with resilient nominal demand, slower growth, firm labour markets, renewed price pressure ...

While broader investor sentiment remains constructive and overall junk spreads hover near historically low levels, fears of a stagflation shock from the Middle East conflict are souring sentiment toward the weakest global corporate borrowers, many of which binged on cheap debt during the era of ultra-low interest rates. Consequent...