Don’t look at the mountain of US corporate debt: Total corporate debt in the US has risen to USD 11.2 tn thanks to the pandemic, as rock-bottom interest rates and the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying programs allowed companies to borrow big to keep themselves afloat, the Wall Street Journal reports. Non-financials firms sold some USD 1.7 tn of bonds last year, pushing the amount of corporate debt to roughly half the size of the US economy.

Europe has started taking investor orders as it kicks off a five-year plan to sell USD 1 tn worth of debt to finance grants and loans to member states under a program dubbed NextGenerationEU, according to Bloomberg. The inaugural sale of 10-year bonds is expected to raise over USD 12 bn after the instruments are priced later today.

HSBC is forecasting robust demand in Dubai’s real estate market fueled by a growing appetite for large homes due to the pandemic, writing in a note that the pick-up in sales so far this year has been “remarkable,” Bloomberg reported. This mirrors a sentiment shared by Morgan Stanley last month, whose analysts predicted several years of growth.

The EGX30 rose 0.5% at yesterday’s close on turnover of EGP 1.05 bn (18.6% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 8.4% YTD.

In the green: Fawry (+1.5%), CIB (+1.5%) and Eastern Company (+1.4%).

In the red: CI Capital (-3.8%), Qalaa Holdings (-3.2%) and Emaar Misr (-1.8%).

Asian stocks are down early this morning ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting later today, but futures suggest that US and European shares will open in the green.