The S&P/LSTA Leveraged Loan Index return fell to a three-year low of 1.60% in 2014, from 5.29% in 2013. The Loan 100 lagged the broader Index in 2014 with a 0.99% return, after advancing 5.02% in 2013.

For December, the S&P/LSTA Index returned negative 1.25%, as loans traded lower in the face of record retail outflows and crumbling investor sentiment early in the month.

It was the biggest monthly setback for the Index since August 2011, when returns plunged to a post-credit-crisis low of negative 4.40% amid a cocktail of exogenous events that was capped by S&P’s downgrade of the U.S.’s credit rating. – Steve Miller

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