Consistent with a leveling of the rate of increase in the US trade deficit in 2006, the price of investment grade corporate bonds has been holding steady, as the graph indicates. Driven by a trade deficit that has been increasing since the early 1980s, the persistent flow of funds into the US bond market has caused […]

According to statistics published by the Bond Market Association, based on Thomson Financial Securities Data, corporate bond issues for the first five months of 2006, totaled $339 billion. This was an 18.3% increase over the same period in 2005. New issues were concentrated on investment grade bonds that made up 91.7% of the total — […]

According to a US Bureau of Economic Analysis release of July 12, 2006, the US trade deficit leveled off during 2006, with a difference between imports and exports of goods and services of $63.8 billion in May 2006. Since the trade deficit is a major source of funds for the US bond market, a slowing of […]