The announcement of nearly $28 billion in new U.S. M&A transactions on a single day this week—including Monday's proposed $11.1 billion merger of GE’s transportation business with rail equipment maker Wabtec—helped push global deal volume above $2 trillion, marking a new global record for the period, Reuters reports.

According to a review of transactions by Reuters analysts, only twice have global mergers and acquisitions hit levels so high, so fast. It's been 10 years since global M&A volume was so robust, with $1.8 trillion in deals announced during the first half of the year. The next year marked the beginning of the financial crisis. In 2000, a total of $1.5 trillion in transactions foreshadowed the bursting of the tech bubble.

Click here to read this story in its entirety