High Yield Bond and Leveraged Loan Market Monitor: Leveraged loans outperformed HY bonds by the second widest margin since October 2024

Research evidence excerpt

High Yield Bond and Leveraged Loan Market Monitor: Leveraged loans outperformed HY bonds by the second widest margin since October 2024

J P M O R G A N North America Credit Research

03 August 2026

High Yield Bond and Leveraged

Loan Market Monitor

Leveraged loans outperformed HY bonds by the second

widest margin since October 2024

• High-yield bond spreads widened modestly in July alongside a spike in Oil North America Corporate Credit -

(+21% m/m) and rise in rates (10yr +27bp m/m) as the conflict in the Distressed, High Yield and

Middle East continued to evolve. July also encompassed elevated sectoral Leveraged Loans Strategy

dispersion alongside ratings decompression. For context, CCC spreads were Nelson Jantzen, CFA AC

61bp wider in July compared to 6bp and 11bp of widening for Single-Bs and (1-212) 270-1169

BBs. That said, 2Q results for HY companies are off to a strong start with nelson.r.jantzen@jpmorgan.com

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

earnings beating at an exceptional rate and guidance also very strong. High-

Tony Linares

yield bond yields and spreads rose 27bp and 11bp in July to 7.51% and

(1-212) 270-3285

317bp, which are up 74bp and 2bp YTD. And amid AI CapEx concerns, the tony.linares@jpmorgan.com

HY HPC subsector widened 106bp in July. High-yield bonds provided a J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

modest -0.2% loss in July with Energy (+0.3%) and Financial (+0.3%) Nimai Rathi

outperforming while Cable/Sat. (-1.4%) and Telecom (-1.2%) (91-22) 6157 5898

underperformed. This was the only 2nd monthly decline for HY in 16 months nimai.rathi@jpmchase.com

and limited YTD gain to +1.9%. J.P. Morgan India Private Limited

Josh M Friedman

• Despite prices falling $0.16 off the intra-month high, leveraged loans (1-212) 834-4674