By Ben Steverman

After a year when the threat of bankruptcy seemed to lurk around every corner, investors can breathe more easily. Recent data suggest companies are finding their debt troubles easier to manage.

That's a relief to investors whose portfolios were slammed by corporate defaults. In 2009, U.S. companies defaulted on 10.9% of speculative-grade debt, according to Standard & Poor's. Globally, companies defaulted on a record $627.7 billion in debt.

"It's the business equivalent of a 50-year flood," bankruptcy attorney Nicholas M. Miller, a partner in Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, says of 2009. "Now there are indications the situation is improving a bit."

The nature of the bankruptcy threat is changing, many...