High yield default rate edged higher in January, says Moody's

Seven corporate defaults edged Moody's global high yield default rate higher in January to 2.0%, up from December's revised rate of 1.8% but still significantly lower than January 2011's rate of 2.8%  

Petroplus was the only European name to default, keeping the European rate at 3%, while six defaults came from the US including Kodak's long awaited bankruptcy and the second chapter 11 filing for Buffets restaurants. These pushed the US high yield default rate up to 2.2% from 1.8% in December.

The leveraged loan market saw its first defaults since July 2011 with four defaults pushing the leveraged loan default rate up to 1.2% from 0.6% in December.