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The US Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates for the second time in a month gave a lift to debt markets this week, fuelling investor appetite and creating a sharp contraction in corporate spreads. Following a 50bp cut on January 3, the Fed's decision on Wednesday to shave off a further 50bp allayed fears of a US economic slowdown and fired optimism in the corporate market on both sides of the Atlantic.

So, who grounded Marcus Everard, the supremely intelligent CSFB banker who was most recently based in Hong Kong? Everard's career was always headed towards the stars ever since he walked away with a first at Oxford when Ladbrokes were offering 33-1 against him even coming home with a second. But Everard's genius - or was a tiny amount of luck involved also? - was to switch career horses from CSFB to the start-up Credit Suisse Financial Products. At that time, the fledgling CSFP consisted of Allen Wheat and less than a dozen buccaneering pals, mainly former Wheat colleagues at Bankers Trust. Everard, in a decision which was to make him a serious fortune, sensed the opportunity for pillage and truckloads of booty. Marcus can charm for the world and was immediately accepted into Wheat's "Hole in the Wall" gang.

Marketing will start on Monday for a breakthrough whole company securitisation of UK food manufacturer Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM), using flour mills and revenues from well known products such as Hovis Bread and Mr Kipling cakes to back the bonds. The £650m deal, via JP Morgan, will refinance part of a £1.139m loan equity house Doughty Hanson used to buy the company.

Mexico's Bancomer will next week become the first Latin American bank to tap the US capital securities market for tier one capital when it launches a $400m offering through its Grand Cayman branch. The deal, led by Merrill Lynch, will have a 10 year maturity and is expected to offer dedicated Latin American and cross-over bond investors well over 100bp concession to the UMS's global bonds of the same tenor.

British Telecommunications this week braved a barrage of criticism over the announcement that it was considering a demerger of its international directories and internet business, Yell, rather than the IPO of a 25% stake in the company that investors had been expecting. The official announcement led to speculation that, in light of the falling valuations placed on telecoms assets in the equity markets, BT might consider demerging other businesses, such as BT Wireless, and eventually break up its business.

British Telecommunications (BT) said this week that the planned IPO of Yell, its directories business, may be shelved in favour of a demerger. The management of BT made the announcement before meeting major shareholders on Monday night. A spokesman for BT explained the change of direction. "The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) review is taking a lot longer than expected, and market conditions have changed." The OFT is investigating the monopoly Yell has over the yellow pages directories. Changes in personnel within the OFT have caused the delay, which now threatens the March 31 deadline for the Yell IPO.

Cadbury Schweppes Finance has done its third dollar trade of the year: a six-year $25 million FRN note that pays a final coupon of libor + 0.35%. The note will be issued on February 14 2001 and the lead bookrunner is HSBC Holdings. The note will mark the issuer's sixth trade since its £

* AIG SunAmerica Institutional Funding II Rating: Aaa/AAA

Casino Guichard - Perrachon & Cie has done only its second issue since it signed its programme: a two-year euro20 million ($19.58 million) FRN note that will be issued on February 5 2001. The issuer's other note was a three-year euro550 million FRN issued in September 2000. The trade was priced at 99.861% and paid a final coupon of 3m Eur euribor + 0.45%.

CDC IXIS Capital Markets has increased the ceiling off its euro5 billion ($4.68 billion) debt issuance programme to euro7 billion. The triple-A rated issuer has $5.15 billion outstanding off 267 issues.

German mortgage banks this week focused primarily on tapping existing issues, but the obligations foncières sector sprang to life with Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) and Dexia Municipal Agency (DexMA) launching new issues. CFF launched a Eu1.25bn 5.125% 2008 obligations foncières on Wednesday via CDC IXIS Capital Markets, JP Morgan and SG. DexMA, meanwhile, launched a Eu250m 5.125% 2009 issue targeting retail customers.

Colombia continued to take advantage of its new found popularity in the euro market this week by launching a Eu200m addition to its 2005 bond issue. The increase, led by JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, takes the deal to Eu600m and attracted strong demand, despite coming so soon after the sovereign's recent 2008 offering.