Bond Trading Least Since 2008 as Dealers Retreat: Credit Markets
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Investors are stockpiling corporate debt rather than trading as banks retreat from bond brokering, with daily trading volumes in the U.S. slumping to the slowest July in four years even as offerings reached a record.
Volumes averaged $9.97 billion last month, 8 percent below July 2011 and the lowest for the period since two months before Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s failure ignited the credit crisis, according to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority data. Investment-grade sales rose 58 percent from the same month last year to $80.5 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.