Rising Yields Leave Corporate Bond Buyers Grasping for Floaters

As bond yields jump, investors are increasingly eager to buy floating-rate notes that can benefit from any rise in inflation expectations.

A unit of NextEra Energy Inc., a utility holding company, sold $1.65 billion of floating rate notes on Wednesday. Enbridge Inc., a pipeline systems operator, priced $500 million of the securities on Tuesday, tied to the SOFR benchmark. At its peak, that deal had nearly seven times as many orders for bonds as there were notes for sale. The average this year for fixed-rate issuance is closer to three times.

Intermediate and longer-term government bonds have been selling off ...