美国杠杆贷款指数月度总结（英）2026

June 1, 2026 May Wrap: Steady returns mask a loan market pulling in two directions By: Marina Lukatsky US leveraged loans posted a steady if unspectacular month in May, with the Morningstar LSTA US Leveraged Loan Index gaining 0.51%. Beneath thesurface, the market's defining tension deepened: technicals remained firmly supportive, with a surging repricing wave and recovering CLO issuance Issuance rebounded in headline terms, but the composition told a selective story, with higher-quality borrowers dominating and LBO activity May market highlights: •Loans gained 0.51% in May, above the trailing 12-month average of 0.42% but well below April's 1.29%; the YTD return of 1.24% is the •April's price rally fizzled: the market-value return turned negative again, and the weighted average bid closed at 95.33. •Building Products displaced Software as the worst-performing sector year-to-date, down 5.41%, pressured by a weak housing market and •Bifurcation is increasingly defining the market: distressed and stressed paper combined accounts for roughly 12% of loans, while the par- •New-issue activity rebounded to $111 billion, the strongest month since January, but nearly half came via repricing amendments. LBO •New-issue spreads tightened across all rating buckets, with B-minus borrowers clearing at the tightest level post-GFC, though the pool of Returns firm, prices fizzle US leveraged loans had a relatively stable month, with the Morningstar LSTA US Leveraged Loan Index gaining 0.51% in May, down from 1.29% inApril but roughly in line with the trailing 12-month average of 0.42%. Year-to-date, loans gained 1.24%, the weakest showing for any comparable period in four years, as secondary price weakness continues to blunt the A market split in two The divergence between Software and the rest of the market continued to widen in May. Non-Software performing loans edged down slightly, withthe weighted average bid slipping three basis points to 96.80 by month-end, remaining near the top of the range the segment has occupied sinceearly March. Software loans slipped 38 bps over the month to 87.71, extending a selloff that began in earnest in late January when the two segmentstraded within roughly 220 bps of each other. The gap briefly stabilized in the 800-880 bps range through March and into early April, but resumed Dispersion data indicate that investors are growing more selective, especially in the Software sector. The trend was already building in Q4 2025, whenthe interquartile range widened from 2 to 2.5 points even as the median bid edged up. It then exploded to nearly 6 points by the March 3 trough, Software tells a more extreme version of the same story. By March 3, the interquartile range had reached 16.8 points, with a quarter of Software loanstrading in distressed territory (below 80 cents on the dollar). By the end of May, the median bid recovered to the 93.5 area, but dispersion continued to Software names gained 0.32% in May, the sector's third consecutive positive month, trimming the year-to-date loss to 4.73% from nearly 8% at theMarch trough. Still, monthly performance lagged the broader market, with the overall index gaining 0.51% in May. The underperformance is evenstarker on a year-to-date basis: Software is the second-worst performing sector, down 4.73%, against a market that is up 1.24%. Media and Building Products stumble; services names shine The Morningstar LSTA US Leveraged Loan Index tracks 63 industries based on the GICS industry classification system, with more than halfrepresenting less than 1% each of market share. Among industries with an index weighting above 1%, Media posted its steepest monthly decline in Building Products posted the second largest loss in May, down 0.84%, making it the biggest underperformer year-to-date, down 5.41%, displacingSoftware at the bottom of the rankings. The sector faces dual headwinds: a sluggish housing market, where elevated mortgage rates continue tosuppress activity, and uncertainty around tariffs on imported building materials. Its impact on the broader leveraged loan market is limited, however, Health Care Technology was among the weaker sectors in May, falling 0.37% and slipping back into negative territory after two consecutive monthsof gains, deepening its YTD loss to 1.46%. The broader health care industry also lagged the index in May: Health Care Equipment & Supplies fell 32bps and Health Care Providers & Services gained just 33 bps. Both, however, remain in the black for the year given their defensive, non-technology Among May's outperformers, IT Services and Professional Services stand out, gaining 2.52% and 1.41% respectively, their third consecutive month ofstrong gains following steep losses in January and February. The rebound is notable in the context of broader technology sector weakness, and mayreflect the market drawing a distinction between software businesses facing AI displacement risk and services businesses that a