Investors Are Pricing Junk-Energy Bonds Like $80 Per-Barrel Oil Is Back

Wishing it was 2014 again.

A pump jack operates in an oil field near Corpus Christi, Texas.

Photographer: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg
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It's back to the future in the market for junk-rated debt sold by oil companies.

Investors are treating high-yield bonds issued by energy firms like it's the good old days for black gold. Yields on the securities have have dropped to 6.73 percent, a level last seen at the end of 2014 when oil was trading around $80 a barrel.