JPMorgan Calls High-Quality Bonds a Generational Buy at 6.5% — SkimNews
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Priya Misra of J.P. Morgan Asset Management told CNBC's "ETF Edge" that investors can "take credit risk in the highest quality companies and still get [a] 6.5% [yield]" without downgrading credit quality.
- JPMorgan Core Plus Bond ETF (JCPB), co-managed by Misra, holds roughly $16 billion in assets with more than three-quarters of holdings in BBB-rated debt or higher as of Aug. 31, per the firm's website.
- JCPB is down more than 5% year-to-date as of Friday's close, even as Misra said the firm has recently begun adding duration "thinking we may be nearing the end of that rate move."
- Misra recommended the strategy for investors worried about AI concentration, noting fixed income offers "a diversified set of returns" beyond the "AI trade or tech trade," with exposure to Treasuries and credit outside of AI.
- BondBloxx co-founder Joanna Gallegos echoed the call, urging investors to add corporate debt to portfolios and arguing that "historically attractive" yields and stable base rates are "being lost in the narrative around Treasury rates."
- Misra flagged the housing market as a risk from higher rates and stressed a bond-by-bond, bottom-up approach to avoid over-levered companies, while disclosing the firm has increased double-B and single-B exposure as high-yield spreads widened.
- BondBloxx Private Credit CLO ETF (PCMM) is down 0.6% year-to-date as of Friday's close, per FactSet.
Why it matters: Two fixed-income specialists are telling investors to lock in 6.5% yields on investment-grade corporate debt rather than chase riskier credit or pile further into concentrated AI stocks — a pitch that matters most to investors with stretched equity valuations who now have a credible, high-quality alternative for income.
Ask SkimNews
