Junk Buyers Run for Cover in Trump Tariff Turmoil, Fridson Says

High-yield credit investors are seeking havens in less risky debt and sectors not as exposed to US policy chaos, according to junk-bond guru Marty Fridson.

Investors are moving out of sectors that could be impacted by Donald Trump’s tariffs and into more defensive ones, Fridson, whose debt analysis has been studied by Wall Street for decades, wrote in a report Tuesday. The US sector that saw most spread widening on its junk bonds from Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration to June 30 was “super retail,” a category that includes department stores, discounters and specialty stores.

“This ...