Does that mean go buy them? Maybe not. A one thousand spread still seems to be a magic number. "Is it absolutely a pound-the-table time to buy high yield?" she asks. "Normally the pound-the-table time to buy high yield is when the spreads have reached a thousand basis points."
At the very least, the higher spreads have meant there's more low-hanging fruit for portfolio managers and advisors to consider. Up until last June, the spreads on high-yield bonds were so tight that it was easier to take blood from a stone than get any yield advantage from junk.
"We just moved away from it entirely in 2007 and late 2006," says Matthew Chope, a CFP licensee with The Center for Financial Planning, a Raymond James affiliate in Southfield, Mich. "We still have a zero weight, but I wouldn't be against it if some client called and said, 'I wanted some income,' and there is a place to get a bit more. Even Warren Buffett talked about seeing the best opportunities in the fixed-income space. He said that [in early March] and it's just gotten better."