New Fed tracker shows growing strains in corporate debt

A new indicator from the Federal Reserve shows moderate but growing signs of distress in high-quality corporate bond trading, reflecting investor jitters over the slowing economy.

The alert comes from a new measure called the Corporate Bond Market Distress Index, or CMDI, which the New York branch of the Fed plans to update once a month. The first snapshot, offered on Wednesday, shows greater pressure in the roughly $5 trillion US investment-grade corporate bond market, compared to historic lows in recently released year-end backcast data. last.