The healthcare and pharmaceuticals sector and utilities, power and gas have the highest portion of credits in the corporate investment-grade universe at 15% each, according to Fitch Ratings. Food, beverage and tobacco, another defensive sector, accounted for 6%.
Nonetheless, the universe includes significant weightings for cyclical sectors such as energy, telecommunications and real estate.
Most of the investment-grade universe, about 89%, were rated A or BBB as of June 30. The majority, 56.5%, had a BBB rating. At the end of 2013, 52.5% were rated BBB and 36.8% had an A rating.
Last month, the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Bond index had a -2.7% return, and it lost 1.4% in the first week of October. The index had a yield to worst of 6.23% as of Oct. 6 vs. 5.42% at the end of 2022.
