Traders Pounce on Risk as Junk Bonds Flood Back to Market
Just weeks after coming to a halt because of Donald Trump's tariff bombshell, the junk-debt market is starting to crank back into gear again. From Italian sneaker brand Golden Goose to German chain Motel One, even some of the raciest types of corporate lending are suddenly back in vogue.
A spate of high-yield bond deals kicked off the action at the end of April — and now loan issuers are joining the party.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
27 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Is Elon Musk right to oppose the budget bill? What Americans said in a new poll
During his public falling out with President Donald Trump, Elon Musk slammed the president's proposed spending bill — dubbed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' — claiming it will balloon the deficit. It turns out, most Americans agree with his critique, new polling reveals. In the latest Economist/YouGov poll, half of respondents were asked to react to a statement from Musk on the GOP-backed spending bill, which passed in the House without a single Democratic vote. The legislation, Musk wrote on X on June 3, 'will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion and burden (American) citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.' A majority of respondents, 56%, said they agreed with this statement, while just 17% said they disagreed. More than one-quarter, 27%, said they were unsure. The answers were largely linked to partisan affiliation, with Democrats largely siding with Musk for a change. Seventy-two percent of Democrats said they concurred with the billionaire's statement about the spending bill, as did 55% of independents. Among Republicans, a plurality, 44%, said they agreed. The poll — which sampled 1,533 U.S. adults June 6-9 — posed the same statement before the other half of respondents, but this time, it did not attribute it to Musk. Without reference to Musk, a slightly smaller share, 49%, said they agreed with the statement, while 23% said they disagreed. Smaller shares of Republicans, independents and Democrats agreed, though Democrats saw the largest decrease in support — from 72% to 60%. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. More on the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' The spending bill, which provides funding for fiscal year 2025, passed in the House in a 215-214 vote in late May and is now under consideration in the Senate. It contains many pieces of Trump's agenda, including a road map to extend the 2017 tax cuts, as well as an increase in funding for the Pentagon and border security, according to previous reporting from McClatchy News. At the same time, it slashes funding for social programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Further — to Musk's point — it would increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion over the next 10 years, according to an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency. In addition to Musk, the bill has received criticism from several other prominent conservatives in Congress. One of the most vocal opponents has been Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who wrote on X that 'the spending proposed in this bill is unsustainable, we cannot continue spending at these levels if we want to truly tackle our debt.' Other Republican lawmakers have come out in defense of the bill, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has said the legislation will deliver 'historic tax relief, ensure our border stays secure, strengthen our military, and produce historic savings.' Meanwhile, Democrats have been united in their opposition. In a statement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries labeled the bill 'the GOP Tax Scam' and said it would rip 'healthcare and food assistance away from millions of people in order to provide tax cuts to the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected.'
Forbes
35 minutes ago
- Forbes
Bitcoin's Exuberant Coming Out Party In Sin City
This is a published version of our weekly Forbes Crypto Confidential newsletter. Sign up here to get Crypto Confidential days earlier free in your inbox. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MAY 28: U.S. Vice President JD Vance delivers a keynote address at The Bitcoin Conference at The Venetian Convention & Expo Center on May 28, 2025, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by) Getty Images Yet another Bitcoin Conference has thundered to a close. This year's pilgrimage for the faithful took place at the Venetian, Las Vegas' most ostentatiously faux palace—a mock Venice built in the Nevada desert, complete with a casino, chlorinated canals and costumed gondoliers. Fitting, really, for the new reality of bitcoin: loud, celebrated, and depending on your vantage point, either triumphant or gaudy. Some 35,000 people poured in, an all-time high for what began as a fringe gathering of cypherpunks. The conference even set a Guinness World Record for the most bitcoin payments in a single day, if that sort of thing impresses you. Bitcoin itself hit $111,000 days before the event, a milestone barely celebrated in a market where all-time highs are now routine. At last year's conference in Nashville, Donald Trump promised to make America 'the crypto capital of the planet' and 'the bitcoin superpower of the world.' This year's installment felt like, well, proof-of-work. Trump's lieutenants Vice President JD Vance and Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks took the stage in the main venue to offer receipts: The Securities and Exchange Commission's warfare against crypto is over. Gary Gensler is out. Landmark crypto bills are making their way through Congress. The bitcoin reserve is in the works. Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road founder, is free. Operation Chokepoint 2.0, the campaign to choke crypto's access to banking, has become a phrase mentioned mostly in postmortems. Major financial institutions, once terrified of reputational blowback, are swiftly rolling out digital asset desks again. And dozens of companies, including public ones, are adopting crypto treasury strategies. All this within the first 100 days of Trump's second presidency. 'Promises made, promises kept,' as Trump's crew likes to say. "I'm here today to say loud and clear, with President Trump, crypto finally has a champion and an ally in the White House," Vance boomed at his 9 a.m. keynote (doors opened at 5:30 a.m. to handle the traffic). 'We prioritize eliminating the rules, the red tape and the lawfare that we saw aimed at crypto by our predecessors.' During his panel with the Winklevoss twins, David Sacks asked the audience what else was on the industry's wishlist. The loudest answer? 'Remove the capital gains tax.' Cameron Winklevoss added: 'It would be great if the American government started proactively buying bitcoin.' The irony is hard to overlook. Bitcoin was meant to be apolitical, decentralized, pure—a middle finger to the traditional financial establishment and states' monopoly on money. And yet, the conference at times felt like an RNC spinoff, complete with speeches by Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and ovations for politicians who wouldn't have touched the asset five years ago. The president himself called bitcoin a scam in 2021. Now he's all in. After all, crypto has boosted Trump's net worth by about $1 billion in under a year, according to Forbes' calculations. His digital asset holdings are now worth more than any single piece of real estate he owns, including the combined value of Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower, writes Dan Alexander. A week before the conference, Trump hosted the largest buyers of his meme coin at a White House dinner. His family has not-quietly-at-all seeded an entire portfolio of crypto ventures: DeFi-focused World Liberty Financial, the publicly traded crypto miner American Bitcoin, and Trump Media, which announced during the conference it's raising $2.5 billion to buy bitcoin for its corporate treasury. I kept wondering what Satoshi would say. Maybe he's watching. If so, I doubt he's smiling. Some purists did complain. Not just about the politicization of bitcoin, but about the creeping presence of 'shitcoinery.' Companies behind cryptocurrencies like XRP and Sui, long associated with the other side of crypto's ideological divide, were apparently among the sponsors/supporters. Among prominent panel topics were stablecoins and tokenization. 'Most bitcoiners don't care about the SEC's opinion or what BlackRock and Robinhood have to say. Most bitcoiners, I guess, want to see more bitcoin stuff. Don't forget bitcoin is about the separation of money and state. We should not invite the state. We can't forget all the pain, suffering, murders, famine, and stealing that the state has done for centuries. bitcoin liberated us from the state,' vented one observer. Of course, internal squabbles like this barely register outside the crypto echo chamber. The reality is that the conference, like bitcoin itself, has outgrown its rebel roots, morphing into something far bigger, louder and more institutionally embedded than its earliest adopters ever imagined. Among other high-profile guests were billionaires Michael Saylor, Justin Sun (a major investor in Trump's crypto ventures), Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, members of Congress and Bo Hines, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets. Ross Ulbricht delivered a closing speech, his first after being freed from prison. Three themes dominated the agenda. First, the rise of crypto treasuries. There are now over 70 public companies holding bitcoin (and we were early to spot this trend). It may still be the center of gravity, but it's no longer the only asset in the orbit: there's also growing attention on companies adding solana, ether and even XRP to their balance sheets. Second, legislative momentum. The stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act is on track to pass Congress. Excitement is building around the U.S. market structure bill, which could finally bring clarity and codified legitimacy to crypto in America at large. Third, cultural mainstreaming. The asset once thought of as a tool for opting out of the financial system is now being folded neatly into it: politicians are using it as a campaign plank, nation-states are buying in (the head of Pakistan's crypto council announced at the conference that the country is also planning to establish a bitcoin reserve) and corporations are writing playbooks around it. 'There's an old-time saying 'Everything is good for bitcoin',' assured me Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike and Twenty One Capital—one of the new bitcoin treasury companies backed by Tether and SoftBank Group. 'Do I love every single thing Trump is doing? No, there's plenty of stuff I would do differently personally if I were president. But are there things I love about the administration? Yes, I love having a bank account in the United States, where my passport is issued,' he said, alluding to the unraveling of Operation Choke Point 2.0. Perhaps he's right. After all, partially thanks to the administration's push on the bitcoin reserve and its wholesale embrace of the industry born out of Satoshi Nakamoto's creation, more people than ever know about bitcoin and use it. Meme coins too, but that's besides the point. Turns out, decentralization scales best with help from the state. Also: Circle Soars In First-Ever Stablecoin IPO, Making CEO A Billionaire ELSEWHERE: Trump Crypto Feud Heats Up With Cease-And-Desist Letter [Bloomberg] Apple, X, And Airbnb Among Growing Number Of Big Tech Firms Exploring Crypto Adoption [Fortune] Plans $1B Token Sale At $4B Valuation: Sources [Blockworks]
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sunwing Vacations customers can now book their winter escape to Riu Ventura, an all-new Cancun resort set to open on December 6, 2025
The beachfront resort will offer 700+ rooms, family-friendly amenities and vibrant experiences in Cancun's Hotel Zone TORONTO, June 10, 2025 /CNW/ - Just in time for the winter sun season, Riu Ventura is officially set to open its doors on December 6, 2025, and Sunwing Vacations customers can now be among the first to book their stay at this all-new all-inclusive resort located on the famed Delfines Beach in Cancun's Hotel Zone. Marking RIU Hotels & Resorts' sixth property in Cancun and 23rd in Mexico, Hotel Riu Ventura will offer guests a vibrant, family-friendly escape with the signature 24-hour all-inclusive experience Riu is known for, all with a modern twist. This latest addition further strengthens RIU's longstanding connection to the Mexican Caribbean and its appeal among Canadian travellers seeking sun, style, and convenience. Resort highlights include: Over 700 modern rooms, including swim-out and family suites with two-bedroom options Six outdoor pools, including one with slides and another on the sixth floor with sea views Access to RIULand kids' club and family-focused entertainment programs Dining options ranging from Asian, Mexican and Italian restaurants to a steakhouse and international buffet Six bars, offering refreshing cocktails day and night RIU Party access at nearby Riu Caribe for guests looking to enjoy themed nightlife events Access to RIUFit fitness programs, and a Renova Spa for wellness and relaxation (at extra cost) Hotel Riu Ventura delivers a well-rounded, exciting experience with great value—perfect for families, couples, and groups of friends seeking sun-soaked adventures or a relaxing beachfront retreat. As a preferred partner in Canada, Sunwing Vacations offers direct flights to Cancun from major cities across the country this winter. Customers can book Riu Ventura packages online via or with their trusted travel advisor today. About Sunwing Vacations As the leading vacation provider in Canada, Sunwing Vacations offers more vacation packages to the south than any other vacation provider with convenient direct service from cities across Canada to popular sun destinations across the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. This scale enables Sunwing Vacations to offer customers exclusive deals at top-rated resorts in the most popular vacation destinations. Sunwing Vacations customers benefit from the assistance of our trusted partner in destination, NexusTours, whose representatives greet customers upon arrival and support them throughout their vacation journey. For more information, please visit SOURCE Sunwing Vacations Inc. View original content to download multimedia: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
