Bankruptcy and Debt Acceleration 8-Ks, Trailing 12 Months (Retail trade)

## What this measures

The total over the latest 12 months of original Form 8-K current reports in which a company reports a bankruptcy filing or receivership, or an event (usually a default) that makes a debt come due early: filings that list Item 1.03 (Bankruptcy or Receivership) or Item 2.04 (Triggering Events That Accelerate or Increase a Direct Financial Obligation), filed by companies whose SEC industry code (SIC) falls in the Retail trade division. Counted by filing date, monthly, from September 2004, the first full month of the current 8-K item regime.

## Why it matters

A Form 8-K is due within four business days of the event, so these counts move ahead of quarterly reports and court statistics. Bankruptcies and debt accelerations among SEC-reporting companies are a direct count of corporate credit stress, available every day rather than with the lag of court and agency data.

## How to read it

Higher means more filings. The 12-month total smooths out the month-to-month noise of a small count; compare it with the same month a year earlier. The count also moves with the number of companies that report to the SEC, which changes over time, so compare levels across decades with care.

## What it does not say

It counts filings, not companies or dollars: a company can report an event in more than one filing, and a filing says nothing about the size of the debt or charge. Only SEC registrants file 8-Ks, so private companies (most borrowers) are not here, and companies that stopped reporting before a default are missed. A filing filed jointly by a parent and its subsidiaries counts once. Amended reports (8-K/A) are not counted. A company's SIC code is the one EDGAR holds today. Asset-backed securities issuers (SIC 6189) and filers with no industry code are left out: in 2005–2007 several hundred note-issuing trusts of two life insurers filed 8-Ks tagged Item 1.03, which would otherwise double those years' bankruptcy counts. Item 2.04 also covers triggering events that are not defaults, such as a required repayment after a sale of the company or a ratings trigger. For all U.S. business bankruptcies see the U.S. Courts and Epiq series (credit.bankruptcy.*).

## Source

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR: the item codes each company lists on its Form 8-K (EDGAR submissions data, https://www.sec.gov/edgar/sec-api-documentation), counted by Palanor. SEC: "Information presented on sec.gov is considered public information and may be copied or further distributed by users of the web site without the SEC's permission."