AT&T Inc., the second-largest U.S. wireless-serviceprovider, and miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. led thefastest start on record for monthly bond sales, stoked by yields atalmost all-time lows.

AT&T and Freeport, the world's largest publicly tradedcopper producer, each sold debt worth $3 billion. Dallas-basedAT&T offered $1 billion each of three-, five- and 10-yearnotes. The 10-year bond was priced at 105 basis points, or 1.05percentage points more than similar maturity Treasuries.

Freeport's three-part offering included $2 billion of 10-yearnotes, and $500 million each of three-year and five-year notes.Proceeds from the Phoenix-based company's offering will be used toredeem debt on its 8.375 percent notes maturing in 2017, thecompany said in a statement.

“Investors are taking this opportunity with a lull in theEuropean situation,” said Jody Lurie, a corporate credit analyst atJanney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia. “They were nervous atthe end of the year and didn't want to spend their money and nowthey can put the cash to use.”

Measures of corporate credit risk have eased as concernsdiminish that Europe's fiscal crisis may spread. The Markit CDXNorth America Investment Grade Index of credit-default swaps, whichtypically falls as investor confidence improves and rises as itdeteriorates, touched 94.3 basis points on Feb. 6, the lowest levelsince August.

Wells Fargo & Co., Aflac Inc. and HSBC USA Inc. also soldbenchmark bonds, which took the total debt expected to be raisedtoday to at least $17.8 billion. Including today's sales, corporatebond issuance this month will reach $66.1 billion, the most for thefirst eight days of any month, according to data compiled byBloomberg extending back to 1999.

Near Zero Fed

New issues have been on the rise since the Federal Open MarketCommittee announced its decision on Jan. 25 to keep interest ratesnear zero through at least late 2014. “If investors take Mr.Bernanke at his word and believe rates will remain low for anextended period, corporate bond yields, particularly financials,offer an attractive pick-up versus Treasuries,” Marc Pinto, head ofcorporate bond strategy at Susquehanna International Group LLP inNew York said in an e-mail.

AT&T last issued debt in August 2011, selling $5 billion ina three-part offering of five-, 10- and 30-year senior unsecurednotes, according to Bloomberg data.

Yields on investment-grade corporate bonds in the U.S. havefallen to 3.54 percent, near the record low 3.45 percent reachedAug. 4, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.

Investors are accepting coupons on new issues at all-time lows,Bloomberg data show. On Feb. 1, International Business MachinesCorp. obtained a record interest rate of 0.55 percent on its $1.5billion of three-year notes, while Procter & Gamble Co. sold10-year notes at 2.3 percent.

AT&T is tapping the bond market for the first time after itdropped a $39 billion bid to acquire Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA in the face of opposition from the U.S. JusticeDepartment. The acquisition would have helped AT&T vault overVerizon Wireless to become the largest U.S. wireless provider.

AT&T's bond sale was managed by BNP Paribas SA, CreditSuisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG. The company is rated A2 byMoody's Investors Service and A- by Standard & Poor's.

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