After a two-month absence, default activity resumed in August, when two energy names – Samson Resources and Alpha Natural Resources – defaulted on $1.6 billion of S&P/LSTA Index loans. As a result, the lagging-12-month default rate climbed to a five-month high of 1.30% by amount, from July’s 33-month low of 1.11%, and to 0.78% by number of issuers, from a 7.5-year low of 0.57%.