The new issue market was on fire this week.

There was nearly $55 billion in total supply, including the quasi sovereign deals. We remember when that was a whole month’s worth of new issue in the Investment Grade Corporate Bond Market.

The amount of supply is all the more surprising in the face of saber-rattling in the Ukraine, though some people think that’s what created the opportunity. Interest rates dipped a little bit, and a lot of companies jumped in. We expected the market to adopt a more cautious tone at the beginning of the week, but that seemed to last for about 45 minutes before we were off and flying. There were three – three­– $4 billion issuers. Mckesson Corp brought $4.1 bill across 5 tranches, Bank of Tokyo – Mitsubishi brought $4 billion across 5 tranches, and Gilead Sciences simplified their issuance with $4 billion across three tranches. Mckesson and Gilead were both funding acquisitions, so had been expected to come to market sooner or later.

It all seems to come back to M&A. The availability of cheap debt to fund shareholder friendly activity is pushing the market along. And we have cheap funding thanks to Central Bankers around the world, which will come to an end eventually – just not yet. Credit spreads were a little shaky this week, mostly on the ever-volatile long end, but it looks like they’ve ended the week pretty much unchanged. That is pretty remarkable performance in the face of that much supply, which generally creates a secondary flow of paper as investors make room for the new deals. So go ahead and strap on your wings.

Fly as high as the sun.