“If one is concerned about valuations and the future performance and volatility of the equity markets, from a historical perspective, high yield appears cheap relative to equities at this point in the cycle.”
-David Breazzano
The following is a summary of an excerpt from our 2020 DDJ Virtual Investment Conference. To access the video featuring David Breazzano, DDJ’s President, Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager, addressing this topic, please click here.
In order to better understand the current state of the high yield market and where we see opportunities, let’s first take a step back and look at it from a broader market perspective by comparing high yield to equities, with equities represented by the S&P 500 index. I believe it's important to make this comparison to better understand the relative value between the two asset classes. In addition, before we look at the current environment, it is informative to get a historical perspective, so let’s review the past two major inflection points and subsequent recoveries in those markets, with the first such inflection point occurring during the 2001 to 2004 period.