Pre-migration untagged articles

The State of Israel made a roaring return to the international bond markets this week when joint bookrunners Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley accelerated the bookbuilding on the sovereign's Eu750m 10 year Eurobond to price it on Wednesday at 53bp over mid-swaps — the tightest spread and biggest deal Israel has ever achieved internationally as a standalone issuer.

The State of Israel made a roaring return to the international bond markets this week when joint bookrunners Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley accelerated the bookbuilding on the sovereign's Eu750m 10 year Eurobond to price it on Wednesday at 53bp over mid-swaps — the tightest spread and biggest deal Israel has ever achieved internationally as a standalone issuer.

The EuroCP market picked up this week with bankers reporting strong demand for sterling paper and a second bumper week for Swiss franc tickets.

Fannie Mae's bonds tightened yesterday (Thursday) as the market came to terms with a news report this week that investigators had uncovered fresh accounting violations at the US mortgage agency.

The German equity market defied doubters this week by brusquely ignoring the political deadlock that is gripping the country and filling economists with gloom.

European agencies dominated the dollar and euro markets this week, with Kommunalbanken of Norway, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank and Asfinag of Austria, and KfW of Germany all issuing successful benchmarks.

Liquidity and interbank trading in the swaps market this week were driven by several large trades in euros and dollars, all of which appeared to be swapped.

There was much toing and froing in the tables this week, with Mizuho leapfrogging Goldman Sachs to take the lucky 13th spot in table one. Mizuho printed over $360m of deals, the biggest being an ¥3bn 30 year equity-linked deal for Kommunalkredit Austria.

Does anyone care about the market for new international bond issues any more? Perhaps not, if you look at the way in which crackerjack bond houses, including Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs, have taken their foot off the primary market pedal.