Stock Bulls Have Stopped Pretending to Care About Balance Sheets
- Companies with weaker finances have the best run since 2009
- Similar signal was prescient following global financial crisis
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Another nondescript month for stock-market benchmarks is obscuring an ever-strengthening embrace of the economy by investors.
Even as Treasury yields rise, companies with weaker balance-sheets and loaded up on debt are in the midst of a comeback not seen since 2009 -- when the world was emerging from the global financial crisis. The strength in credit-impaired firms in the equity market has proved a prescient signal in past recoveries, and is a vote of confidence in the economic rebound that lies ahead.