It is frequently used as an indicator of a company's liquidity, its ability to meet short-term obligations.

Some current assets are by nature needed to maintain the company operations and would not normally be available to meet short-term obligations.

Many individual investors try to play it safe by buying short-term obligations, he noted.

Commercial paper traders said that the market for the company's short-term obligations vanished after the announcement.

For predicting the ability of the governmental unit to meet its short-term obligations as they come due.

Last week, Mesa borrowed $616 million in long-term debt from a number of insurance companies and large institutions to pay off some short-term obligations.

Increasing the size of short-term obligations would probably drive up short-term rates.

The credit watch also covers the short-term obligations of all three auto makers, though the amount was not specified.

However, the firm may have sufficient cash to pay its short-term obligations and continue operating.

Concern about Lucent's debt persists even though the company does not have any important short-term obligations to meet.