Tariff risk nudged firms close to default: Moody's

The number of companies at the greatest risk of defaulting are at an 11-month high, as uncertainty around US trade and tariffs worsened credit conditions, according to a Moody's Ratings report.

- BLOOMBERG

In the second quarter, 16 companies were added to the cohort of businesses with the highest default risk, according to Moody's. The group now stands at 241 companies, the report shows.

"With US tariffs and trade uncertainty unsettling global commerce in April, credit conditions have deteriorated" since the beginning of the year, the analysts wrote. The group includes US non-financial corporates with a Moody's rating at or below the highly speculative Caa1 rung or with a higher B3 rating but are at risk of a downgrade.