Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010
IBM Sells 1% Bonds
For corporations looking to borrow, the poor economy and a Federal Reserve policy of keeping rates as low as possible has been a big boon. That fact was solidified this summer when IBM raised $1.5 billion dollars selling bonds bearing an interest rate of just 1%. Since then a number of other large companies have sold bonds at similarly low rates. But at the time, the IBM bonds had the lowest interest rate of the more than 3,400 securities in the Barclay's Capital U.S. Corporate Index. Two years ago, it seemed all U.S. debt was toxic. Investors were demanding high rates for even the safest of debt offerings. The IBM deal is just another important sign that the economy is slowly improving.