Bond Risk Surges to Record on Concern Slump ‘Too Hard to Fix’

By Aaron Pan and Abigail Moses

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of protecting corporate bonds from default soared to a record on concern central banks are reaching the limit of what they can do to ease the severity of the global economic recession.

Credit-default swaps on the Markit iTraxx Crossover Index of 50 companies with mostly high-risk, high-yield credit ratings increased 18 basis points to 956, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. prices at 9:36 a.m. in London. The Markit iTraxx Europe index of 125 companies with investment-grade ratings climbed 3.5 basis points to 191.5 and earlier traded at a record 198.

“The economic slump is too hard for anyone to fix right away,â€