It turns out that bond investors do occasionally put down their collective foot and refuse to be cash registers for big companies.

Just such a moment came late Wednesday, when Charter Communications Inc. withdrew a planned $1.5 billion bond sale, citing “market conditions.” The reality is the telecommunications company wanted to borrow money at rock-bottom rates and use the proceeds to buy back shares but dropped its plan when bond buyers pushed back the tiniest bit.

To be fair, this week has been a bit weaker for lower-rated corporate debt, largely because of lower energy prices that have pressured leveraged oil and gas drillers. But money is still relatively cheap. Borrowing costs for risky companies outside of the energy sector rose by a mere 0.10 percentage point in the past week, to 5.38%, compared with the decade-long average of 6.7%. Yields on Charter bonds are still near record lows.