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Record Week for Corporate Bond Issuance
This past week, 20 companies sold bonds, according to Reuters data, in what has been a record year for issuance. The weekly bonanza included a $9.4 billion issue by Ford, the second-largest ever by a US firm.
On Friday, the finance arm of General Motors sold $6 billion of bonds. Both the Ford and GM issues included high-grade 30-year bonds yielding more than 8%, while 30-year Treasuries now yield about 5.3%.
Also coming to market in the past week were issues from:
- BellSouth – $2.75 billion
- Tyco International – $1.5 billion
- Honeywell International – $1 billion.
Through Thursday, firms had sold $483.3 billion of US investment-grade corporate bonds, smashing last year’s record $353.2 billion, according to Thomson Financial. Topping that list was an $11.9 billion issue from WorldCom in early May.