Financial conditions might be tighter this year as the Federal Reserve keeps up its inflation fight, but they have yet to restrict U.S. companies from borrowing via Wall Street’s debt financing machine.
Companies with investment-grade credit ratings have been borrowing in the U.S. corporate bond market at a record clip to start 2023, even though they’ve also been paying some of the highest rates in 14 years. Helping to boost bond issuance volumes in February was Amgen Inc.’s AMGN $24 billion debt financing to help fund its acquisition of Dublin-based Horizon Therapeutics HZNP , one of the Top 10 biggest bond deals of its kind.
The Fed in early 2020 cut interest rates to almost zero at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which spurred a record U.S. corporate borrowing binge.