WSJ: Charter Among Cos. Causing Pending Defaults Wave

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that U.S. companies are poised to default on up to $500 billion of corporate bonds and bank loans over the next two years – that would amount to the highest amount of corporate-debt defaults in history, the newspaper said.

“In percentage terms, the projections from the three main credit-rating agencies for defaults on high-yield bonds approach levels last seen in 1933, according to an 87-year default-rate history compiled by Moody’s Investors Service,” the Wall Street Journal said.. “The agencies expect default rates on these non-investment-grade bonds to triple to about 14 percent or higher this year, from around 4.5 percent last year.”

The pending Chapter 11 filing by Charter Communications is contributing to that estimate, according to the Journal.