Market volatility has led to a pause in debt issuance--particularly at the lower end of the credit spectrum. After 14 months of largely positive rating momentum, downgrades have been exceeding upgrades for the past four weeks, with the Russia-Ukraine conflict a key factor. In terms of defaults, the global 12-month-trailing speculative-grade default rate remains low at just 1.5% as the number of defaults in 2022 is at its lowest level since 2014.