Fixed-income investors gobbled up $49 billion in notes sold by Verizon, the largest-ever corporate bond sale in history, while global stocks rose modestly and gold hit a three-week low yesterday as Syria tensions eased.

Verizon sold $11 billion of 10-year bonds today at a yield that’s 225 basic points more than Treasuries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield is 47 basis points more than investors demand to own bonds with similar maturities and BBB ratings.

Verizon’s massive bond deal was sought by pension funds, endowments, institutional buyers and wealth managers hungry for higher-yielding securities.

It sold the bonds to partly finance its $130 billion buyout of its wireless operations, Verizon Wireless, from Vodafone. – (Reuters/Bloomberg)