America’s Corporate Bond Party Goes on as Sales Near $1 Trillion
- Company debt thrives as pool of negative yielding assets grows
- Issuance in Europe also reaches a milestone in August
Searching for Safety in the Global Bond Market
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Bond sales this year by blue-chip companies in the U.S. are about to exceed $1 trillion as investors seeking refuge from negative interest rates underpin a borrowing binge.
Investors are embracing investment-grade debt, which has gained 9.49 percent this year after losing 0.7 percent in 2015, according to the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate Bond Index. Sales in August, which are typically slow due to the summer holidays, topped $115 billion making it the busiest August in at least 12 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. More than $962 billion of the debt has been issued this year and at that pace sales may reach the $1 trillion mark in September.