Inflows into junk bond mutual funds tell analysts a lot about how much of a risk investors are willing to take. So when the research firm
Junk bond funds, one week after posting $361 in inflows, took in $602 million for the week ending Wednesday, signaling that declining default rates have led to much higher demand. In fact, among all types of bonds,
"This [inflow] suggests a fair willingness to assume credit risk," said Christopher Garman, a junk bond strategy guru at Merrill Lynch, in an interview with Reuters.
The $602 million in inflows represented junk bond funds best week since the week that ended Oct. 15, 2003.
