NEW YORK – The prices of a major junk bond ETF fell on Thursday as investors pulled out of riskier assets amid a widespread selloff in global markets sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
BlackRock’s iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF – an exchange-traded fund which tracks the U.S. junk-bond market – fell 0.4% to trade $82.2 a share, its lowest since July 2020.
The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade Index, a basket of credit default swaps that serves as a gauge of credit risk, widened 3 basis point to 73 basis points, as investors hedged bets on a deterioration in credit quality.
(Reporting by Davide Barbuscia)