Energy bonds plummeted Monday to record lows, some of them with extraordinary drops of 10, 20 or even 30 cents on the dollar. The average spread over Treasuries for companies in the Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Energy index has surged above 10 per cent for the first time since 2016, back when hundreds of energy-related companies were going bust or restructuring.
That last round of rejiggering was supposed to stabilise the industry's future by cutting debt and extending maturities for almost a decade. But coronavirus and the disintegration of the OPEC alliance has cast doubt on whether oil and gas drillers can keep paying their bills that long, let alone repay the debt.
Bloomberg