On the program today, we got corporate debt.

We've got economic data, the soft kind.

And then we're going to go shopping.

From American public media.

This is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Risdell. It is Tuesday today, the second of September. Good as always to have you along, everybody.

With the obligatory reminders that the stock market is not the economy and also that you should always consult your own financial advisor. I will note here up at the top of the program that September, early September in particular,

is historically the worst period of the year for stocks. So forewarned and all that. But the first

couple of days after Labor Day are also typically

pretty busy for companies looking to issue bonds. Borrow money is another way to put that,

as they raise cash ahead of the winter holidays. What usually happens is that companies issue

long-term debt, bonds with maturities in the years or even decades. But another kind of

corporate borrowing has been surging all of this year, a kind of short-term debt that's paid

off far faster than your typical corporate bond. It's something called commercial paper.

And as Marketplace is Justin Ho reports to get us going, the booming commercial paper market

can tell us quite a bit about what companies are thinking right now.

The commercial paper market is kind of like that 2 p.m. snack before dinner.

It's probably not loaded with fiber or protein, but it will hold you over for a little while.

It kind of provides a low-cost, instantaneous almost, cash infusion.

John By is a finance professor at Northeastern University.

He says commercial paper typically matures in months or even days.

Companies don't use it to finance expansions or acquisitions or other long-term plans.

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