EUHY vs SPHY

EUHYBiShares Euro High Yield Corporate Bond USD Hedged ETF

SPHYAState Street SPDR Portfolio High Yield Bond ETF

In short

EUHY US junk-bond ETFs are everywhere. EUHY goes the other direction: euro-denominated European high yield, with the euro exposure hedged back to dollars. European credit risk, without the currency ride.

SPHY State Street's junk-bond workhorse: roughly 1,900 US high yield bonds in one wrapper for 0.05% a year, a fraction of what the typical high yield ETF charges, with income paid monthly.

Stated mandate

EUHY The fund seeks to track USD-hedged, euro-denominated high-yield bonds, providing euro high-yield exposure while reducing euro-to-dollar currency fluctuations.

SPHY The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA US High Yield Index.

Why people hold it

• EUHY Tracks the Bloomberg Pan-European High Yield (Euro) 100% Hedged to USD Index, so you hold European credit spreads with euro-to-dollar swings hedged out.
• Costs 0.35% a year, below the 0.40% median for high-yield bond ETFs.
• Spread across roughly 700 bonds, so no single issuer carries the fund.
• Trading since 2012 inside BlackRock's iShares lineup, a long run for such a narrow corner of the bond market.

• SPHY 0.05% a year against a peer-group median about eight times higher. In high yield, the fee comes straight out of coupon income, so the gap does real work.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds tracking the ICE BofA US High Yield Index, broad enough that no single issuer's trouble dominates the portfolio.ssga.com
• Live since 2012, a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and has stuck tightly to its stated index rather than drifting from the mandate.
• Distributions arrive monthly, in step with how the underlying coupons come in.

Worth knowing

• EUHY Thinly traded. Bid-ask spreads can run wider and larger orders move the price more than in the household-name high-yield funds.
• Cheap for its cohort, not for high yield generally: US-focused funds like SCYB and SPHY charge a fraction. The European mandate and the hedge cost extra.
• The hedge cuts both ways, stripping out euro gains as well as euro losses, and payouts land on an irregular schedule rather than a fixed monthly rhythm.

• SPHY This is below-investment-grade credit. Defaults and spread moves drive the price far more than Treasury yields do, and sell-offs in this asset class can be sharp.
• Fees here are already near the floor: SCYB lists 0.03% and HYLB matches at 0.05%, so the cost edge over the strongest peers is narrow.
• Scope is US high yield corporates, full stop. No investment-grade ballast, no emerging market debt, nothing to soften a credit drawdown from inside the fund.ssga.com

Full EUHY profile⁠

Full SPHY profile⁠