Think

Bleeding Stopped

In the wider markets, the dramas of the past couple of weeks continued through October 19, 2018. “The S&P’s lower close on Friday marked the tenth down day in the past 12 trading sessions”, according to Yahoo Finance.

BDC common stocks, though, generally consolidated after weeks of decline. The UBS Exchange Traded Note with the ticker BDCS, which includes most of the individual players in the sector on a weighted adjusted basis, dropped to $19.39 from $19.40. The Wells Fargo BDC Index – more useful as a Total Return measuring stick than just the price change at BDCS – dropped to $2,505.24, down 0.42%.

Singing The Blues

As the lesser know Sonny Curtis song goes “We fought the tape, and the tape won”. Last week (ended October 5) , the BDC Reporter injected a note of optimism after a bad week for the BDC sector in which the Wells Fargo BDC Index dropped (1.4%). However, we’re not yet convinced that this current malaise will last all that much longer, bringing down BDC prices to correction or bear market levels. We can’t speak to general market sentiment which – as they say – is “going to do what it’s going to do”.

We’ve not yet been proven absolutely wrong because BDCS – which has now dropped to $19.40 after disgorging a $0.41 distribution – is down (7.8%) from its high. If we adjust for the dividend the drop is “only” (5.8%) and the “Total Return” Wells Fargo BDC Index is off just (4.5%). We are some way off a a classic 10% correction or a 20% haircut bear market.

This was a hard week to be a BDC common stock investor.

After several weeks of ups and downs in a narrow range, BDC prices mostly moved clearly to the downside.

We’ll start as we most always do with the UBS Exchange Traded Note with the ticker BDCS, which fell to $20.361 from $20.72 the week before, a (1.7% drop).

BDCS was at $20.90 a fortnight ago, so the two week decline is (2.6%).

Likewise, the Wells Fargo BDC Index dropped (1.4%) in a week and (2.4%) over two weeks.