The Investment Dealers Association reports that client margin debt ticked up in January.
Client borrowing rose to $8.4 billion in the month, up from $7.8 billion in the prior month. This is the highest level of debt since September 2001, when clients had just over $8.5 billion in borrowing from their brokers. But this is well down from the peak of $11.9 billion that borrowing hit in September 2000.