Companies are rushing to meet their financing needs before the US election this year, in a bid to get ahead of potential market volatility in the final stages of the presidential race. Corporate borrowers have issued $606bn worth of dollar bonds so far this year, according to LSEG data, up by two-fifths compared with the same period in 2023 and the highest total since at least 1990.
Several banks, including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered, have also issued debt in the first quarter. Construction groups including Caterpillar’s financial services arm have come to the market too, with some companies tapping lenders multiple times already in the first three months of 2024. “I think what most companies are thinking — particularly frequent issuers — is ‘let’s get the majority of our funding done in the first half of 2024’,” said Morgan Stanley’s Hodgson.