U.S. Corporate Bond Sales Smash Record, Soaring Over $1 Trillion
- U.S. investment-grade sales running around double 2019 pace
- T-Mobile was only large M&A deal while Boeing boosted coffers
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It began with a rush in mid-March, when a pair of U.S. corporate giants, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., braved the financial turmoil created by the coronavirus pandemic and sold a combined $12 billion of bonds in a single day. Others quickly followed, emboldened by the unprecedented support provided by the Federal Reserve, and before long, deals were being rushed out at a clip never before seen in the history of U.S. bond markets.
On Thursday, that boom reached an astonishing milestone: $1 trillion worth of investment-grade corporate debt sales had been brought to market in the first 149 days of the year. In 2019, a fairly typical year in the bond market, that figure wasn’t reached until November.