Companies Move to Refinance Sooner: ‘Better Off to Lock It In’

Many companies are jumping on lower interest rates to refinance their debt sooner than later, choosing not to wait for the possibility of further declines as the economy and markets only become more difficult to read.

Businesses typically replace old debt with new to pay a lower interest rate, change the terms or consolidate debt. The corporate bond market is particularly strong as credit spreads, or the extra yield investors demand to hold them instead of U.S. Treasury bonds, have narrowed to their smallest percentage since the 1990s.