Three out of four defaults last week were due to distressed exchanges, reinforcing their position as the leading driver of corporate defaults in 2023. We expect defaults to rise further in 2024, and this week's meetings of the Fed, BoE, and ECB, among others, will shed light on central bank thinking. Markets expect no change this month, but the communications on future interest rates are more uncertain. None more so than in the U.S. following last Friday’s unexpectedly strong job numbers and in advance of Tuesday's CPI data. Amid the last data releases for the year and as focus on 2024 sharpens, inflation and credit data from China, the world's second-largest economy, will also garner attention.