Slow- and fast-moving information content of CDS spreads: new endogenous systematic factors

This paper proposes two new Credit Default Swap (CDS) endogenous systematic factors constructed from peer-CDS information. The factors capture slow-moving credit risk information, as well as fast-moving newly arrived market information embedded in the most recent CDS quotes. Using a sample of U.S. non-financial listed firms from 2002 to 2011, we find that these two endogenous systematic factors dominate firm-specific factors and other widely known systematic factors in in-sample and out-of-sample CDS spread predictions.