It's nice to report good news: Defense contractor Raytheon (RTN) announced Thursday it is increasing its annual dividend by 21% and planning to buy back as much as $2 billion of stock.

"The Board's decision to substantially increase our dividend and to authorize additional share repurchases reflects our company's strong financial position, our continued confidence in our future and our ongoing commitment to our shareholders," William H. Swanson, Raytheon's chairman and CEO, said in a statement. Not surprisingly, RTN reached a new 52-week high of $58.30 Thursday, finishing the day at $57.26.

Is the Fed's program of slashing interest rates to near zero having any beneficial effects? If we look back at the past three months investors have been running away from any investment with the least bit of risk. This is why we've seen such a massive shift into US Treasuries.

One market hardest hit by the financial crisis was the Corporate Bond Market which tumbled 35% in 2008. Now, however, with interest rates so low, investors are venturing out a bit to find investments with higher yields. In December new Corporate deals included $10 billion dollars of FDIC backed bonds by General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) is selling five and 10 year notes, Brown and Foreman (NYSE: BF.B) is offering $250 million dollars in five year notes, and Tyco International (NYSE: TYC) offered $500 million dollars of 10 year notes. The major "active book-running" players are Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Citigroup (NYSE: C)

What is an interesting dynamic to watch is that investors are always looking for better deals and higher returns. It seems they are tip toeing into the Corporate markets which indicates that there is some movement at unlocking this market for further activity.

Corporate bonds and notes offer higher yields than US Treasuries. Would you invest in this market?