1.   And if investors begin to fear that another recession is coming, the spreads could widen rapidly.

2.   Banking company issues were up, though, with analysts noting indications that their spreads may widen with lower yields.

3.   Bond investors said the likelihood the companies would issue more debt to pay their share was causing spreads to widen.

4.   A rising default rate is bad for bond prices, of course, so holders of junk bonds suffer, just as they do when spreads over Treasuries widen.

5.   But the spread has widened each day since.

6.   Fund managers are taking some comfort from the knowledge that several CBOs, or collateralized bond obligations, are waiting to snap up bonds whose spreads widen.

7.   In this case, traders bought sold gasoline and bought heating oil, betting that the latter would perform better than the former and that the spread would widen.

8.   In the two weeks leading up the July Fourth weekend, spreads widened.

9.   Looking back, it is easy to see how Meriwether might later have been felled by thinking that when spreads widen, they always come back.

10.   Lower-quality borrowers always have to pay more than safe ones, but this year the spreads have widened significantly.