Bangkok--8 Sep--Standard & Poor's The high-yield market remained in the doldrums in August, said an article published today by Standard & Poor's. Investors pushed high-yield spreads wider on low trading volume, according to the article, titled "U.S. High-Yield Prospects: Doldrums Of Summer (Premium)." The Standard & Poor's speculative-grade composite, which tracks more than 1,110 high-yield bonds, widened 30 basis points (bps) since the end of July to 787 bps on Aug. 29. The 2008 high was 802 bps on March 21. While there was little to cheer about in the secondary market, the primary market took a vacation in August. There were only three new U.S. high-yield bond issues totaling $675 million rated by Standard & Poor's in August. "On the economic front, news seemed a bit better than expected," said Diane Vazza, head of Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research Group. Durable goods orders surprised by increasing 1.3% in July. Core capital goods orders grew 2.6% in the month as businesses continued to spend. Real GDP for the second quarter was revised to 3.3% (annual rate) from 1.9%, as export growth was revised to 13.2% from 9.2% and imports were revised downward to negative 7.8% from negative 6.8%. Nonfarm business sector productivity was up 2.2% in the second quarter and 2.8% on a four-quarter basis. Healthy data for the second quarter may cause investors to marginally increase their near-term economic outlook. So far this year, Standard & Poor's has downgraded 282 companies and upgraded 98 companies among U.S. speculative-grade corporates, versus 277 downgrades and 157 upgrades in all of 2007. "Downgrades have accelerated as economic weakness has begun to erode credit quality," said Ms. Vazza. "Forward-looking credit metrics suggest that the number of downgrades will continue to increase." RatingsDirect is the real-time Web-based source for Standard & Poor's credit ratings, research, and risk analysis, at www.ratingsdirect.com. The standard version of this article is part of our standard Global Fixed Income Research content. The premium version contains expanded analysis of the article's most significant points, typically broken out by sector and region. Also in the premium version are in-depth charts and tables, the underlying data of which are available for download. Ratings information can also be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Credit Ratings in the left navigation bar, select Find a Rating, then Credit Ratings Search. Members of the media may request a copy of this report by contacting the media representative provided. Media Contact: Mimi Barker, New York (1) 212-438-5054, [email protected] Analyst Contacts: Diane Vazza, New York (1) 212-438-2760