The Collaborative Market Data Network -
serving the Public interest of Transparency in Debt Capital Markets
The Collaborative Market Data Network
Serving Transparency in Capital Markets
The Collaborative
Market Data Network

Credit Market (Bond Market) (Debt Market)

From a corporate point of view, it is the broad market for companies looking to raise funds through debt issuances. The credit market encompasses both investment-grade bonds and junk bonds, as well as short term commercial paper. Also can be defined as the market for debt offerings as seen by investors of bonds, notes and securitized obligations such as mortgage pools and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), this is from the investors point of view. The credit market is far larger than the equity market in terms of dollar value. Therefore, the current state of the credit market, tells us the relative health of a large portion of the financial community. We can observe the health of the financial community by examining the prevailing interest rates and look at the investor demand for various grades of credit – from riskless (as in treasury bonds) to junk bonds with high default risk but high returns. Some classes of mutual funds and ETFs invest solely in the credit markets, allowing investor to add fixed income exposure to their portfolios without purchasing individual securities.

Wikipedia