They sold so much, in fact, that they

set a record for the most corporate debt sold in a week.

But if you think that means more investment going

into the economy, you may want to think again.

We have double the charts this week,

which means double the fun.

So let's get started.

So let's start with this large chart down here.

This data comes from Dealogic and it

shows the total amount of corporate debt issued

each year going back to 1999.

So it includes both high yield and investment grade debt.

As with most charts that go back over the financial crisis,

you can kind of see the effects of that

here with a large rise and then a large tumble.

But ever since then the issuance of corporate debt

each year has been rising.

And that's because borrowing costs have been low.

Now keep in mind this point right here is 2019.

We're not all the way through 2019 yet.

So even though each of these other observations

contains the entire year's worth of data

we only have up until September for this data point.

So this potentially is going to rise over

the course of the year.

Now, if we were to zoom in on that data point,

we would get this chart right here,

which shows 2019 corporate debt issuance from January

through the first week in September.

So this spike right here - this is last week.

This was the record setting corporate debt week

that we observed.

So why did this suddenly happen when the levels of debt

have been a little bit more stable

over the course of the year and then you have this shoot up?

Well, in August, Treasury yields were really low.

And so that meant that corporations

were able to issue debt at a low interest

rate, which means the cost to them

is much lower to borrow money.

Why would investors want to buy debt at a low interest rate?

Well, remember that in other markets - other bond markets

- there are negative interest rates right now.

So even if you're getting a low interest rate,

if it's in positive territory and you're an investor,

right now you're thinking that might not be the worst deal.

Two really unique things about this last week.

One was that usually when we see a bump in debt like this

it's because of some mega deal that's happened.

But that actually wasn't the case.

It was just companies issuing debt.

They just saw an opportunity and they took it.

So, for example, Apple sold $7bn in debt.

Disney sold $7bn in debt.

And there was a little bit more of a concentration

from US corporations issuing debt.

Although remember, this data contains the entire globe.

Now let's talk about the second interesting thing

that has to do with this debt issuance.

Normally, when a company issues debt

they do it so that they can take that money

and invest it in new products or services that they offer.

So they're expanding their business.

They're investing in something new in the economy.

Well actually, with this issuance last week

a lot of companies said they're actually

using the money to pay off old debts

and essentially restructuring their current debt so that it's

over a longer maturity period.

So if you thought, oh great, all these companies,

they're going to be investing their money

in new things for the economy.

Well actually, it may not be the case.

At the same time though that means

that the total amount of leverage

that a company may have isn't necessarily going up too much.

So if the total level of corporate debt out

there worries you.

If you think, ah, this looks like something

that could be a bubble that burst

in the case of a recession, well you're not necessarily wrong.

But remember that if that were to happen

the first place that we would see

it is in the high yield debt market.

Because remember high-yield debt refers to companies

that are already in a situation where

they're going to have a hard time paying back the money

they owe.

So if you're worried about it, keep an eye

on the high-yield markets.

But as for now, I say let's wait and see

what happens to the end of 2019 and see if this record

week turns into a record year.