By Kevin Flanagan
There is no doubt that 2016 proved to be rather volatile in the global fixed income arena. There certainly were many factors, headlines and events (plunging oil prices, Brexit, the U.S. presidential election, the Federal Reserve's (Fed) second rate hike, etc.) the collective bond market had to contend with, which most assuredly were integral for this roller-coaster ride.
If we cut through all the noise, a recurring theme seemed to be that, in terms of overall performance, 2015's losers became 2016's winners. Nowhere was this trend more evident than in the U.S. corporate bond market, as one of the worst-performing fixed income asset classes of 2015-high yield ((HY))-became the top performer last year. As measured by the Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Total Return Index Unhedged, HY produced a reading of +17.13% in 2016, more than reversing the prior year's 4.47% decline. It should be noted that…