James Gellert | Source | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Rapid Ratings International

The trend will continue for a while with companies bumping along, barely surviving but for access to capital and not filing for bankruptcy.

Financial health is a good deal like actual health, in that companies in the best position to withstand a shock came into the crisis relatively healthy. Conversely, those retailers that entered in deteriorating health have fared worse for the most part.

We’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg of bankruptcies to come. We’re going to see default and bankruptcy rates climb as the combination of the COVID-19 crisis, energy crisis and historically high corporate leverage converge into unprecedented volatility and destabilization. Companies are going to fail in waves. The survivors will fit into two camps: those that can rebound or grow despite the crisis and those that are unable to recover and ultimately fail despite surviving the most immediate impact.