High Yield Corporate Bond vs the S&P 500 (HYG): is it outperforming?
Over the past month, HYG has underperformed the S&P 500 by 0.2 points. Here is where that puts it in the market rotation — updated daily.
Where HYG sits on the rotation map
High Yield Corporate Bond highlighted against the 11 broad S&P 500 sectors. Vertical: 1-month spread vs the S&P 500. Horizontal: the longer, time-shifted window — the methodology explains the math.
HYG vs SPY: head-to-head returns
HYG (high yield corporate bond) and SPY (the S&P 500) side by side over every window Zensei tracks. The spread is the difference — positive means HYG won that window.
Data as of 2026-07-22 · computed from daily adjusted closes · how we measure
The read
High Yield Corporate Bond (HYG) is out of favor: it trails the S&P 500 on both rotation windows — 0.2 points behind over the past month and 4.8 points behind over the longer, time-shifted window. That is the lagging quadrant. Ranked by one-month spread, it currently stands #64 of the 115 groups Zensei tracks.
On the shorter tape, HYG's momentum is weakening: the intraday trend that carried the move is cooling across the shorter windows. HYG's relative-strength line has broken below its long-term average — the long-term outperformance trend is no longer intact. Both signals point the same direction here: the market is not rewarding this group on either horizon.
The thing to watch from here is the one-month spread: laggards only become interesting when the recent window turns positive first — until then, the market is voting elsewhere.
High Yield Corporate Bond vs the market — common questions
Is high yield corporate bond outperforming the S&P 500?
Right now, no: over the past month HYG has underperformed the S&P 500 by 0.2 points. This page updates daily, so the answer reflects current market data rather than a dated article.
What is HYG?
HYG is iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF, the fund Zensei uses to measure the high yield corporate bond group against the S&P 500 benchmark (SPY).
What quadrant is high yield corporate bond in right now?
As of the latest daily data, high yield corporate bond is in the lagging quadrant — trailing the S&P 500 on both windows. The quadrant rules are documented on the Zensei methodology page.
Related sectors
Track high yield corporate bond against the whole market
Zensei Edge maps 100+ sectors and themes against the S&P 500 — with the stocks inside each one, rotation history and alerts when leadership changes hands.