Bolstered by one of its largest quarterly increases on record, cash held by corporations in the U.S. rose by over 6% in the third quarter. Corporate cash now stands at $1.925 trillion, up from $1.811 trillion at the end of June.
Treasury Strategies’ analysis of data released this week by the Federal Reserve showed that much of the increase was the result of companies going into the market and issuing bonds. Rather than companies immediately deploying that cash, over $80 billion went into bank deposits. Interestingly, reserves that banks have deposited at the Fed grew by $250 billion, demonstrating that banks had little use for the new corporate deposits.