Companies issue record level of US debt to avoid market turbulence and election risk

Companies issued record volumes of US debt this week as they moved to head off possible volatility from closely watched economic data, a Federal Reserve meeting and a fast-approaching presidential election.

Twenty-nine US investment-grade bond deals hit the market on Tuesday alone following the Labor Day holiday, data from LSEG shows — the highest daily number on record.

Another burst of activity on Wednesday took issuance over those two days to just under $73bn, the largest figure in LSEG records going back 20 years. More blue-chip deals followed, taking total borrowing across 60 high-grade issuers to almost $82bn — marking the busiest week since May 2020.

“It’s definitely been much busier than we could have ever imagined,” said Teddy Hodgson, global co-head of fixed income capital markets at Morgan Stanley.

Recent borrowing has spanned various sectors, with a $2.5bn deal from Ford Motor Credit, a flurry of bond sales by banks, a $750,000 deal from Target and a $4bn deal from Uber, which marked its first such transaction as an investment-grade company after being upgraded last month.

Investment-grade borrowers typically rush to tap lenders in early September. But senior debt bankers said the record-breaking issuance this week also reflected a desire to get ahead of any potential volatility sparked by economic data or the US election in early November.

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