NUHY vs SPHY

NUHYBNuveen ESG High Yield Corporate Bond

SPHYAState Street SPDR Portfolio High Yield Bond ETF

In short

NUHY High yield with a conscience filter. NUHY tracks a Bloomberg MSCI index that screens junk-bond issuers on ESG data and leans toward the market's more tradable corners, at a fee below what the typical high-yield ETF charges.

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

NUHY The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the investment results of the Bloomberg MSCI U.S. High Yield Very Liquid ESG Select Index.

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

• NUHY Costs 0.30% a year, under the 0.40% median for high-yield bond ETFs.
• The ESG screen is written into the mandate, not bolted on: the fund's stated job is tracking the Bloomberg MSCI U.S. High Yield Very Liquid ESG Select Index.
• Stays close to that benchmark in practice, one of the tighter implementations among high-yield ETFs.
• Spreads the credit risk across roughly 400 bonds and pays income monthly.

• 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

• NUHY The shares themselves trade thinly next to the category's giants, which can mean wider spreads on the way in and out.
• Nuveen's own NHYB is built on the same declared index for 0.08%, a meaningfully cheaper route to the same exposure.
• This is below-investment-grade credit. Default risk is real, and these bonds can slide alongside stocks when markets turn.

• 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 NUHY profile⁠

Full SPHY profile⁠