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Tenors in US dollar went out to 10 years but were mostly at the short end. Rabobank Nederland closed a $10 million 10-year note led by Rabobank International. The trade is non-call-two with a European call. The first two years pay a floating rate coupon at 6m $Libor and if the note is not called it becomes fixed rate. The issuer was also in the seven-year sector with a $10 million range accrual trade led by Morgan Stanley, callable semi-annually throughout. The first year the coupon is the 6m $Libor plus a spread and after the coupon is fixed rate, stepping up by 50 basis points each year and linked to a range, which itself steps up after the fourth year. Sigma Finance was also in the seven-year sector with a $7 million note. Hamburgische LB Finance (Guernsey) issued a $10 million five-year note via Merrill Lynch. This is also a range accrual, callable after the first year and semi-annually thereafter. The interest is calculated at 6m $Libor flat plus a fixed rate of 3.12% multiplied by the number of days in which 6m $Libor falls within a certain range. In the three-year sector K2 Corporation closed a $5 million note via Merrill Lynch. The trade is a zero coupon with redemption linked to the Nasdaq100.

New issue activity in the US bond market petered out this week as the "Enron effect" caused spreads to gap out 10bp across the board and as much as 100bp for some credits. Any credit investors imagine could have even a whiff of an accounting issue to deal with are being quickly dumped by investors. This week spreads on Tyco International, PNC Financial and Williams Companies widened sharply, while banks that might have exposure to risky credits were hit.

Vivendi Universal's Eu2.5bn multi-currency revolving refinancing facility was launched into the market this week to a less than rapturous welcome. Banks have been offered one ticket at this stage - a Eu150m take-and-hold paying participation fees of 25bp flat for arranger status.

Do you feel just slightly sorry for the UBS Warburg salesmen and credit researchers who were binned by the bank just because they tapped into Morgan Stanley's research website? There may be some sympathy in the City, but out in the shires where men are men and the sheep walk nervously, the locals are probably saying,: "These Euro fat cats made their own bed and now they can lie in it." We don't take sides on these occasions and we don't know the senior members of the "Gang of Four", Nick Tudball and Derek Braun - is he any relation to Alex Braun, who used to do clever things at Abbey National and was very popular with the ladies, or is he a brawn-like indigestible meat?

The corporate euro market will be dominated by utilities in the coming days, with the release today (Friday) of official price talk if not launch of a Eu1bn-plus issue for Suez and a deal of around Eu500m for Union Electrica-Fenosa, while EnBW will next week begin roadshows for a transaction of at least Eu1bn. Suez is set to achieve a level flat to its curve, despite the large size of its issue, with investors reportedly showing strong demand for the deal, which will be led by Citigroup/SSSB, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley.

Vodafone announced this week that Arcor, its German fixed line subsidiary, has sold its railway-specific telecoms operations to Deutsche Bahn, the German state-owned rail operator. As part of the deal, Deutsche Bahn has relinquished its veto rights over the company - potentially paving the way for Vodafone to float Arcor.

Credit events in the US, both perceived and actual, dragged corporate spreads wider this week, making life uncomfortable for issuers seeking to access the bond markets. Having been blind to the possibility of bankruptcies such as Enron, investors now see the possibility of a credit event at every turn. With no major transactions in the dollar pipeline, the US agencies are set to dominate the sector in the next two weeks. Freddie Mac will auction a $6bn February 2005 Reference Note on February 12 and will give details, probably next week, of a 30 year issue to be sold on February 15. The same day, Fannie Mae is due to announce a two or a three year transaction. Next week should also see an announcement of callable Benchmark issuance from Fannie Mae.

Yesterday saw a variety of structures in the yen market and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter announced the two biggest yen deals of the year. The ¥40.2 billion ($299.16 million) and ¥39.8 billion deals both have terms of just less than one month. Apart from two ¥3 billion trades from Apollo Spires (four years) and UBS (10 months) the rest of the day's business was for less than ¥1.5 billion. European Investment Bank announced a ¥1 billion 30-year note via Nomura, and Nomura also placed a ¥1 billion 25-year note for Nederlandse Waterschapsbank. The latter pays an initial fixed coupon of 5.5% and is then linked to the US dollar-yen exchange rate. It is callable after two years. Mizuho managed at least three trades. One was for Kommunalbanken: an ¥800 million 29-year deal, and two more were for SNS Bank Nederland. The ¥500 million and ¥600 million notes go out to July 2007 and November 2008 respectively, and have coupons of 6m ¥Libor + 9 basis points and 3m ¥Libor + 10 basis points. Both were issued at par. Kommunalbanken also announced a ¥500 million 30-year deal via Daiwa SMBC Europe. And Daiwa also led a trade for Kommuninvest I Sverige. It was a ¥200 million 20-year power reverse dual currency deal with a fixed coupon of 3% for the first year. It is callable after the first year too. Rabobank Nederland went for a ¥1 billion 15-year trade with Credit Lyonnais as bookrunner. The note has a fixed coupon of 3% for the first year and is then CMS-linked (20-year rate minus the two-year rate plus a spread). It is callable after a year and semi-annually thereafter. Svensk Exportkredit announced four 30-year deals for ¥200 million, ¥350 million, ¥400 million and ¥500 million.

Austria Arrangers Bank Austria (joint bookrunner), Citigroup/SSSB (joint bookrunner) and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (joint bookrunner, facility and documentation agent) have confirmed that the Eu500m five year revolving credit facility for OMV that was launched into syndication last week has been warmly received by the market.

Twenty-two trades were announced in yen on Friday, one of which was the second-biggest deal so far this year. The ¥15 billion ($111.63 million) two-year note was issued by General Electric Capital Corp and was later increased to ¥20 billion. Deutsche Bank (Luxembourg) led the deal which pays 3m ¥Libor flat. And triple-As made up the bulk of the volume on Friday again. CDC IXIS Capital Markets did four trades between ¥200 million and ¥1 billion that had terms between 12 and 30 years. Dorada Corp went for a ¥500 million three-year-and-eight-month trade that pays an initial fixed coupon of 0.01%. European Investment Bank announced a ¥1.7 billion 30-year deal. Republic of Austria made its sixth note of 2002 a ¥1 billion 20-year deal with Nomura as bookrunner. After an initial coupon of 3% it becomes linked to the Australian dollar-yen exchange rate in the typical power reverse dual currency (PRDC) structure, and is not callable. Single-A issuers also did some business though. Britannia Building Society announced a ¥500 million three-year-and-eight-month trade via Morgan Stanley. It has a fixed coupon of 0.01% for its duration and is not callable. BTM (Curacao) Holdings did a ¥2 billion 13-year trade. And Deutsche Apotheker- und Aerztebank did an identical deal to Britannia Building Society's. The ¥500 million trade has a term of three years and eight months, and the coupon is fixed at 0.01%. The only difference is that Merrill Lynch was the dealer. Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank did a ¥700 million 20-year deal with Nomura in the lead-manager's seat. The PRDC note pays 2.7% for the first year after which it is callable and is linked to the US dollar-yen exchange rate.

It was a busy day in the yen market yesterday, with 45 trades announced worth $352.33 million. Salomon Smith Barney acted as dealer on several of these, including four deals for KfW International Finance. The notes varied between ¥1 billion ($7.47 million) and ¥1.9 billion, and all had terms of 30 years. African Development Bank also used Salmon Smith Barney for two trades. The ¥3 billion and ¥3.6 billion notes go out to February 2027. And Salomon was used as bookrunner for Toshiba Capital's ¥500 million 10-year trade, Travelers Insurance Co Institutional Funding's ¥3 billion five-year trade and Volkswagen Financial Services ¥2 billion one-year trade. Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank did a ¥1 billion 10-year deal with Shinkin Bank as bookrunner. The step-up multi-callable note has a coupon of 1.2% for the first two years and then increases by 30 basis points semi-annually. NIB Capital Bank did a ¥1 billion 20-year note via Mizuho. It is CMS-linked after an initial coupon of 3%. The issuer also announced a ¥2.5 billion three-year trade. Depfa Deutsche Pfandbriefbank announced a ¥500 million 20-year CMS-linked trade via Mizuho. And it used Mizuho for a ¥1 billion 30-year callable power reverse dual currency trade as well. Royal Bank of Scotland did a ¥500 million 20-year deal.