North America Credit Research
02 May 2019
Strategy
US High Grade Strategy & CDS Research
US High Grade Strategy & Credit
Derivatives Research
Eric Beinstein
AC
(1-212) 834-4211
eric.beinstein@jpmorgan.com
Paul Glezer
(1-212) 270-8185
paul.x.glezer@jpmorgan.com
Pavan D Talreja
(1-212) 834-2051
pavan.talreja@jpmchase.com
Sheila Xie
(1-212) 834-3036
sheila.xie@jpmorgan.com
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
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High Grade Strategy
High Grade bond spreads rallied 12bp in the first half of April to 139bp and
remained there for the past two weeks. Last month was positive news on US
growth as GDP came in at 3.2% compared with much weaker estimates earlier in
the quarter. Corporate earnings also have come in better than expected (though
not strong) with EPS growth of 0.5% y/y on the quarter so far, compared
with -2.0% expected at the start of earnings season in early April. Supply was in
line with expectations at $92bn last month and is down 6% y/y. This has brought
net supply down by 18% y/y. The slowdown in supply has been driven by
Financials, and they have outperformed Financials partly on the back of this. The
cost of FX hedges for Euro and Yen-based investors has risen recently, but not for
Taiwan based investors. Based on TRACE data overseas demand for USD credit
is running near the 2018 level, following a strong Jan-Feb. The 20s30s spread
curve suggests that 20yr bonds remain cheap – despite the message given by
analyzing 20s30s benchmark curves.
Credit Derivatives
CDX HY has outperformed most credit and equity indices since its roll last month.
CDX.HY index is trading rich versus HY bonds, iTraxx Crossover and the Russell
2000. However, CDX.IG and CDX.HY are trading in line. Trading activity has
picked up significantly in the CDX.IG 3y and 10y indices. CDX.IG 10y index is
one of the three most traded linear instruments in HG credit after CDX.IG 5y
index and LQD. The CDX.IG S31 senior mezzanine tranche has underperformed
while the junior mezzanine tranche has outperformed in the recent rally. This
provides attractive relative value opportunities to position for a mild index selloff.
Additionally, the CDX.IG senior mezzanine tranche appears as a more attractive
long than the CDX.IG index. We discuss an option trade to position for CDX
indices trading range bound over the coming weeks without taking risk in a large
selloff.
Trade Tracker
Since our last publication, our Trade Tracker is up $7,715. Over the last twelve
months, performance is up by $720,174 (+4.3% ROI / +19.8% IRR).
Chart of the week: HG bond spreads rallied 12bp earlier last month and remained flat since then
Source: J.P. Morgan
100
120
140
160
180
Jan-18 Mar-18 May-18 Jul-18 Sep-18 Nov-18 Jan-19 Mar-19
JULI Spread
bp