Debt sale rush ahead of holiday season Sales of investment-grade debt this week may surpass the $25bn mark as global corporations attempt to raise this year's final batch of funds at low borrowing rates, ahead of the forthcoming holiday season, analysts said. Agribusiness giant Monsanto, Philip Morris International, transportation company Ryder System and Latam Airlines, Latin America's airline carrier, led the charge among corporate borrowers, announcing a flurry of new debt deals on Monday. The rush of new sales is coming as the bulk of the third-quarter earnings season is now complete, and as companies try to squeeze in as many debt sales as possible ahead of the usual capital markets shutdown towards the end of the month around Thanksgiving. Corporate borrowers and bond investors are also banking on the Federal Reserve maintaining its policy of easy money into next year. A recovery in risk appetite among fixed income investors has helped pull bond yields lower since the central bank surprised markets by not starting to taper its monthly bond buying in September. At last week's policy meeting the Fed kept its options open for a taper that could be announced at its December meeting, but the consensus in the bond market is that any such move has been pushed into next year. "Risk appetite has been rekindled by the Fed's not-taper decision, with issuers taking advantage of declining yields and investors putting money to work," said Edward Marrinan, credit strategist at RBS Securities. We expect that the pace of debt issuance will remain elevated during November in the run-up to Thanksgiving. The combination of low borrowing costs and strong demand for higher-yielding alternatives to top-tier government bonds has pushed corporate debt sales in the US to record levels. Global corporations took advantage of the sweet spot and have sold $954bn worth of high-grade bonds so far this year, compared with $893bn in the same period of 2012, according to Dealogic. "Corporate borrowers and debt underwriters have been traditionally opportunistic," said Adrian Miller, director of fixed income strategy at GMP Securities. "Meaning they take every "opportunity" to issue the most amount of bonds at the lowest possible cost, when liquidity in the market is high." Mr Miller said as long as investors" appetite for alternatives to lower-yielding government bonds remained intact, the pace of corporate debt offerings would "remain high." Average yields on US investment-grade corporate bonds stood at 3.19 per cent on Monday, while those on US Treasuries were at 1.26 per cent, according to Barclays indices.