Debt market activity slowed to a comparative crawl to start out 2019, as a whipsaw stock market retreat led to a general freeze-up in multiple areas of corporate lending and borrowing.

Investors will be watching to see whether the steep across-the-board decline during the period was merely the remnants of 2018's late-year turmoil — or another sign that the economy is slowing.

"It's all a function of the fact the markets shut down basically in December. It was unusual because normally credit leads equities. This was one where equities led the massive deterioration in credit," said Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist for the Americas at Natixis. "The spigot turned off."

Indeed, the late-year meltdown and its carry-through to the market in the early part of the year was severe.

Issuance plummeted across the board, from syndicated loans to mergers and acquisitions to institutional lending. Securitized products such as collateralized loan obligations also saw a huge drop in activity as did leveraged buyouts, according to data compiled by Refinitiv.

First-quarter syndicated lending overall declined 36 percent to about $400 billion. Leveraged loans, a previously surging part of the market involving highly indebted companies with weak credit profiles, fell 56 percent to $152 billion. Institutional loans dropped to a three-year low of $58.8 billion, and investment grade and leveraged buyout funding slid 11 percent apiece.

LaVorgna said he expects that with much better conditions in the stock market this year, that should lead to a turnaround in the corporate debt market.

"As markets have healed here, you're going to start seeing activity pick up," he said.