Retail giant Walmart Inc. was seeing robust demand from debt investors on Wednesday for its new corporate bond deal. The 5-part bond offering, expected to reach about $4 billion in size, already was seeing nearly $27 billion in orders from interested investors, according to Informa Global Markets. Walmart, WMT a big-box retailer with AA credit ratings, indicated it expected to use proceeds from the debt raise for general corporate purposes. It has at least $4 billion of bonds maturing over roughly the next six months, according to a tally from CreditSights analysts. Corporate bond issuance in March nearly ground to a halt after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank prompted fears of broader instability in the U.S. banking system, while also producing volatility and huge swings in the financial markets.Yields on corporate bonds have been climbing in the past year as the Federal Reserve has jacked up interest rates to fight inflation. The yield on the ICE BofA US Corporate Index was last spotted at about 5.06%, down from a recent peak of 6%, but well above the near 2% yield during the pandemic lows.
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