DISTRESS WATCH: 2024 is Capping a 20% Decline in Troubled Debt

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Global markets are ending 2024 with the smallest pile of distressed debt this year, capping a 20% decline since early January.

That measure reflects an increasingly accommodative lending environment. Managers of funds that buy junk bonds and leveraged loans in the US saw nearly $45 billion of inflows this year, EPFR data compiled by Bank of America strategists show. Then there’s the stockpile of cash in private credit funds. That combined firepower ...