Global corporate defaults hit a six-year high last week as four more companies, including two oil and gas credits, joined the default ranks, S&P said on Thursday. Texas-based magnum hunter resources filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, while Spanish energy multinational abencoa missed payments on commercial paper. Media company getty images completed a distressed debt exchange, counted as a default by S&P, while Brazil's sugarcane processor tonon bioenergia filed for judicial recovery. That brought the number of defaults this year to 107, a level not seen since 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. S&P said 39% of the defaults were in the oil and gas sector, and more than half overall were companies in the US. Analysts expect the woes in the high-yield E&P sector to spread next year - with the risk that some investment-grade companies fall into junk if oil prices do not recover.
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