The 2026 bond market is booming! The global distribution scale reached 61 billion US dollars in a single day

The Zhitong Finance App noticed that the global dollar bond market issued 61 billion US dollars on Monday, showing strong demand for credit from investors. This may encourage issuers to increase supply at the beginning of the year.

At least nine Asian borrowers were promoting dollar bonds on Tuesday, including Japan's Resona Bank and Agricultural Bank of China. According to the data, the scale of global bond issuance on Monday was the largest since January 6, 2025.

According to an index, the yield on global high-ranking US dollar corporate bonds is around 4.8%. Although the US military unexpectedly arrested Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend, causing geopolitical risks to rise, there was little change in borrowing costs.

The surge in issuance volume highlighted the market's confidence in the global economy at the beginning of the year, which is usually one of the busiest stages for corporate and government financing. As corporate fundamentals are generally stable and investment-grade credit spreads are still near historically low levels, borrowers are locking in transactions ahead of schedule.

On Monday, 20 issuers, including Japan's two largest banks, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, sold bonds in the US high-level bond market, receiving an average of more than three times the size of the issuance. Additionally, Saudi Arabia raised $11.5 billion in a single offering.

“Demand is still quite steady, and the economic environment in Asia is relatively moderate,” said Omar Slim, co-head of fixed income at Berry Investments Asia. “Considering current yield levels and issuance volume factors, we may see a slight widening in interest spreads in some places, but I don't think there is any reason to support the basic scenario where interest spreads widen drastically.”

Morgan Stanley strategists predict that more than $2 trillion of US investment-grade debt will enter the market this year. This is expected to be driven by the company's artificial intelligence expansion projects, refinancing of maturing debts, and acquisition financing.