This page looks at corporate investment, or capital expenditure. The left chart shows the pace of capital order recovery after each recession. We can observe that after the virus-induced slowdown, investment activity has recovered exceptionally quicker compared to past recessions.

On the right, the relationship between corporate credit spread and U.S. capital spending is also close. A tightening of corporate credit spreads (grey line) usually implies companies can borrow at lower interest rates and funding is more readily available. This would, in time, allow for companies to go ahead and invest in the business, as shown by non-residential fixed investment (purple line).