Bear Stearns High Yield Index finishes week to Nov. 9 showing 10.87% year-to-date return

By Paul A. Harris

St. Louis, Nov. 10 - The Bear Stearns High Yield Index has returned 10.87% for the year to Nov. 9.

During the most recent week, the yield to worst narrowed by six basis points to 8.07%. Over the same period, the yield-to-worst spread tightened by 11 bps to 341 bps.

For the month to Nov. 9, during which all 12 industry sectors generated positive returns, the index returned 0.75%.

The outperformer for the month, thus far, is the health care sector at 1.99%. That advance was led by its specialty services component, which generated a 1.09% return for the period.

Despite health care's notable early November advance, which extended its year-to-date return to 2.39%, the sector continues to trail the rest of the pack in terms of total returns thus far in 2006.

Health care has been weighed down by its diagnostic services component, which has a negative 15.88% return for the year to date and, with its decline of 20 bps during the month to Nov. 9, is the only index subsector to have given up ground thus far in November.

Among the sectors, the underperformer through the first nine days of November was transportation, which returned 0.08% during that time.

However, transportation's 9.80% year-to-date return is fourth best among the 12 industry sectors, and transportation's airlines component, with its 33.45% year-to-date return, leads all other subsectors for 2006 to Nov. 9.

The third best year-to-date return among the sectors is that of telecommunication, at 9.95%. The 21.60% year-to-date return of its long distance component is second only to the above-mentioned index-leading airlines component of the transportation sector.

Second place among sectors, year-to-date, goes to media, at 10.87%.

And the index outperformer is the consumer cyclical sector, which has advanced 13.21% for the year to date.

The 19.96% year-to-date return of that sector's automobile manufacturing-related component trails only the above-mentioned returns of the airlines and long distance subsectors. However, airlines represents only 0.09% of the index composite, while long distance makes up 1.19% and automobile manufacturing-related, the giant among the index's subsectors, makes up 14.14% of the composite.

To Nov. 9, the index had a market value of $593.73 billion, and the issue count stood at 1,648.

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