2021 has been a great year for equity investors.

The Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 ETFs are up between 20 and 25 percent on the year!

But while it’s felt like a risk-on kinda year, there’s been one missing ingredient: Junk Bonds.

Something isn’t quite right…

In today’s chart, we look at the year-to-date performance of key stock market indices versus the popular Junk Bond ETF (JNK). As you can see, Junk bonds are badly lagging the broader market.

Typically, junk bonds are a strong performer in a “risk-on” environment for investors. So perhaps the stock market isn’t quite as stable here as thought… and maybe a little mean reversion is coming around the bend. Stay tuned!

(Click on image to enlarge)