JPMorgan and UBS Wealth Both See Value in Corporate Bonds

(Bloomberg) -- Corporate bond markets offer pockets of opportunity for investors, according to UBS Wealth Management and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Pressure on issuers may be less severe than after the Lehman Brothers crisis in 2008 given the steps governments and central banks have taken to implement credit backstops and aid economic activity, JPMorgan said. Asian fixed-income markets are particularly attractive, according to UBS Wealth.

“Credit as an asset class looks still cheap relative to government bonds or equities or even against the level of VIX in the case of U.S. high-yield credit,” JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note Friday. The pace of ratings downgrades shows signs of rapid normalization, they added.

UBS Wealth’s Asia-Pacific Chief Investment Officer Kelvin Tay said parts of the Asian fixed-income market offer yields of more than 7%, reiterating comments from the company last month. The firm favors BB-rated credit and recommends avoiding sectors most exposed to the fallout of the virus, such as retail, gaming, hotels and leisure.

Volatility is set to rise again but it’s “very, very” unlikely that the S&P 500 will fall back to its March lows, Singapore-based Tay said in an interview.

“On a short-term basis, the S&P 500 is likely to trade sideways because activity is going down, then you have the jobless claims, slowing momentum, slowing benefits and the election coming,” he said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty lurking. And it doesn’t take much to trigger volatility again.”

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