MADRID (MarketWatch) -- While struggling banks are unwilling to lend, European investors are piling into corporate debt and risky bonds at a surprising rate, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. So far this year, European investors have invested $268 billion in corporate bonds, the highest level since at least 1995, the Journal said. The appetite for bonds is stretching all the way to some of the riskiest types of bonds, driving hopes that the money could restart even the stagnant market for initial public offerings of stocks, key to any economic recovery. "We're all surprised by how quickly the market recovered," said Emmanuel Gueroult, head of European equity capital markets at Morgan Stanley in London, according to the Journal. In the second half of last year, Europe's capital markets contracted sharply. Europe's companies still get some 70% of their financing from banks, versus 30% in the U.S., the Journal said.
