Margin Debt the Size of Microsoft Is No Big Liability for Stocks
- Record speculative buying often seen as sign of euphoria
- Yet current pace in equity credit growth is nowhere near 2000
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Margin debt just shot to another record in the stock market.
About $530 billion was extended as credit by brokerages to clients at the end of February, up 2.9 percent from the previous month, according to data released Wednesday by the New York Stock Exchange. The amount, approaching the market value of Microsoft Corp., is the most since 1959.