In the past week alone, two companies completed distressed exchange offers--US-based Liz Claiborne and Canada-based Cinram International.

This brings the total number of corporate defaults so far this year to six, including four based in the US, according to Standard & Poor's.

Limited Brands said it will sell $750 million in 10-year notes. The company said it intends to use the proceeds to repurchase $500 million of stock under a new share repurchase program and for general corporate purposes.

The move seemed to surprise some commentators. But investors applauded the move, bidding up the stock by more than 1 percent when it began trading Tuesday morning.

Here are more encouraging signs that the economic recovery continues to gain strength.

Credit quality continues to improve and some indicators stand at two-year highs.

According to Standard & Poor's, the US speculative-grade default rate fell to 3.35 percent in mid-December, down from a peak of 11.4 percent hit in November 2009. In the US, 53 issuers defaulted through November, compared with 185 at the same time in 2009.

Credit quality continued to improve in the third quarter...except for financials.

According to a new report from Fitch Ratings, global corporate rating activity year-to-date through the third quarter of 2010 was net positive, with a downgrade to upgrade ratio of 0.9 to 1.

What are the chances that a company that has defaulted on its debt defaults for a second time?

Not very high.

Here is further proof the economy in general is improving.

Despite stubbornly high unemployment, Standard & Poor's reported a decline in monthly default rates for all credit lines.

So much for those dire forecasts calling for massive defaults of junk bonds.

Fitch Ratings says the pace of high yield defaults has slowed so dramatically in 2010 they have even defied the most optimistic forecasts.