NHYB vs USHY

NHYBANuveen High Yield Corporate Bond

USHYAiShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF

In short

NHYB ESG-screened high yield priced like the plain stuff: 0.08% a year, well over a thousand bonds, and the same Bloomberg MSCI index Nuveen's older, pricier ETF follows.

USHY The wide-angle lens on junk bonds: about 1,900 US dollar high yield corporate issues for 0.08% a year, a fifth of what the typical fund in its category charges. Broad, cheap, heavily traded, and it pays monthly.

Stated mandate

NHYB The fund seeks to track the Bloomberg MSCI U.S. High Yield Very Liquid ESG Select Index before fees and expenses. Its strategy uses representative sampling and normally invests at least 80% of assets in index components.

USHY The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. dollar-denominated high yield corporate bonds.

Why people hold it

• NHYB Costs 0.08% a year, level with the cheapest broad high-yield ETFs (USHY) and a small fraction of what the typical fund in this cohort charges.
• Nuveen's older ETF on the identical index (NUHY) charges 0.30%. Same benchmark, same rulebook, a fraction of the fee.
• Holds well over a thousand bonds through representative sampling, so a single issuer's trouble is a rounding error, not a headline.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that has hugged its index closely, and one of the stronger implementations in a crowded high-yield group.

• USHY Charges 0.08% a year while the median high yield fund in its cohort runs 0.40%. Cheap rent on an expensive-to-run corner of the bond market.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds against the ICE BofA US High Yield Constrained Index: the broad market, not a curated slice of the most liquid names.ishares.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the more actively traded in high yield, which tends to keep bid-ask spreads thin even on busy days.
• Pays monthly and has tracked its index tightly since its 2017 launch, one of the closer index matches in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• NHYB Launched in September 2025, so the live record is short and has not yet been through a full credit cycle.
• This is below-investment-grade debt: prices can fall hard when credit spreads widen, and defaults come with the territory.
• The ESG screen leaves out issuers the broad high-yield market owns, so results can drift from unscreened peers in either direction.

• USHY High yield means below-investment-grade borrowers. When credit gets stressed this asset class drops with stocks instead of cushioning them.
• Cheaper tickets sit on the same shelf: SCYB at 0.03% and SPHY at 0.05%.
• This is a fund, not a bond ladder. No maturity date hands your principal back; the basket rolls on indefinitely.

Full NHYB profile⁠

Full USHY profile⁠