Investors in junk-rated energy bonds, who have made a mint this year betting on this battered sector, are paring their holdings as oil flirts with sub-$40-a-barrel levels on concerns about a persistent overhang in supply and choppy demand. Thanks to the two-year slump in the price of oil, energy debt securities yielded a whopping 21 percent in February when crude hit its lowest in over a decade at about $26. That brought in opportunistic buyers who watched prices rise, pushing yields to around 9.5 percent now, a level that these investors see as overvalued relative to oil’s weakening price. Energy debt prices have managed to continue to rally even as the price of oil headed lower in July, as investors believed that the bankruptcies that resulted from the two-year slump were largely behind the market. U.S. […]