Companies yanked back the reins on bond sales this month amidthe widespread carnage in financial markets.

Just $6 billion of new U.S. investment-grade bonds hit themarket this week, short of the $15 billion to $20 billion estimate,according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It's the third time infour weeks that issuance missed expectations and the worst weeksince August. October's supply looks likely to fall well belowprojections of $110 billion and the $114 billion of volume seen inthe same period a year ago.

“We've seen more volatility going into October; people concernedwith the higher rates and trade wars, Saudi Arabia—name what youwant,” says Arnold Kakuda, senior credit analyst covering globalbanks for Bloomberg Intelligence. “We've had a broad risk-offmovement.”