Junk Debt Sales Soar After Trump Tariff Threat Recedes

Junk-debt sales on both sides of the Atlantic surged on Monday as firms took advantage of easing geopolitical tensions after US President Donald Trump abandoned his Greenland-linked tariff threats.

Some 30 deals worth about $39 billion swooped on the US leveraged loan market — mainly to reprice existing loans or refinance debt — in the busiest day since July, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In Europe, nine borrowers turned to the region’s junk-bond market for deals and another four high-yield bonds launched in the US, including United Airlines, which announced the first unsecured junk bond from a high-yield issuer for a local airline since the pandemic.