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A record amount of money has flooded into US corporate bond markets this year, as investors rush to lock in the highest yields in years ahead of an anticipated series of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Inflows into corporate bond funds have reached $22.8bn so far in 2024, according to fund tracker EPFR, the first positive start to a year since 2019, when $22.4bn had flowed in by this point.
The flows have helped to push up prices and compress so-called spreads — the extra interest paid by corporate borrowers relative to the US Treasury — to their lowest point in two years.
Most of the money has gone into investment grade vehicles, pushing spreads to two-year lows, although some has gone into junk debt, where spreads are at 26-month lows and just a whisker above levels last seen before the global…
