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Just three months after Nestlé last extended its corporate bond curve, the Swiss food group is back in the market. On Friday it pushed its range of maturities even further.

Bond market views vary as to what European Central Bank president Mario Draghi will announce after Thursday’s ECB meeting. However, corporate bond syndicate desks are all very clear about the rude health of the new issue market.

China’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) has decided not to acquire a credit rating for its forthcoming dollar bond issuance – the country’s first dollar bond in over a decade. The news came as MoF mandated 10 banks as bookrunners and managers, including four foreign entities.

Dutch grid operator Stedin, formerly part of Eneco, was one of several issuers that met with investors before announcing deals this week. It had been discussing a sub-benchmark three year to five year floating rate note and a benchmark eight year fixed rate note, for what was essentially its bond market debut.

UnitedHealth Group rescued an otherwise lacklustre week for high grade dollar bond issuance with a $4bn deal as earnings blackouts kept a lid on supply.

Corporate bonds that are executed on Fridays are often brought then to give issuers some space in crowded markets, but in an otherwise quiet week French electricity grid operator Réseau de Transport d’Électricité had little competition for investor attention last Friday as it printed the longest dated deal of the week.

After utility companies dominated the investment grade benchmark corporate bond market last week, Iren followed this week with a debut green bond that was priced tight to its secondary curve.

Is this bond expensive or are BTPs cheap? That was the question investors considering Wednesday’s debut corporate bond issue from Italian supermarket chain Esselunga had to answer. But there was more to come as an Italian high yield borrower also raised funds at sub-2% writes Nigel Owen.

Norwegian state-owned grid operator Statnett priced its debut benchmark euro corporate bond on Wednesday, opting to go longer than the 10 year tenor many of the recent utility issuers chose.

Qatar is looking to issue a jumbo bond before the end of this year, but bond syndicates and DCM desks are agonising over whether it would be good business for them to work with the state, since it has been cut off by its neighbours.

Belarusian food retailer Eurotorg’s $350m new issue traded up in the secondary market on Thursday morning, demonstrating the high appetite for rare corporate bonds from emerging markets.

China will not amend the RMB trading band in the near term, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said on October 19. Zhou made the remarks shortly after the central bank defended its recent changes to the FX rate mechanism in a report.