Signs of life for debt markets

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- Investors are tiptoeing back into a key short-term debt market after shunning it for seven straight weeks, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Reserve.

The amount of outstanding commercial paper grew by $4.5 billion to $1.86 trillion in the week ended on Wednesday - the first week to show growth since this summer's credit crisis.

In August, the market for commercial paper seized up when fears spread about the assets that back some of the paper - which is important for financing everything from daily business operations to complex investment vehicles. Investors fled for safe havens like Treasurys.

That put a squeeze on banks and companies, which rely on commercial paper to raise money for short periods of time. Commercial paper usually matures in about 30 days.

Investors are still wary of asset-backed commercial paper, which accounts for about half of the total market. The amount of outstanding asset-backed paper declined by $6.1 billion to $906.2 billion in the latest week. The drop, however, was much smaller than the $17.3 billion decline a week earlier.

Rates have also fallen. The rate on 30-day asset-backed commercial paper has eased to 5.20 percent, down from as high as 6.34 percent in early September.

The figures from the Fed suggest that the short-term debt market is stabilizing and lend support to the view that the worst of the credit storm is over.

The outstanding volume of commercial paper has declined by about 15 percent since the end of July, when there was an estimated $2.2 trillion outstanding.