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Corporate issues were scarce again in yen yesterday, but there were plenty of other borrowers to keep the market moving. Thirty-five trades were announced from private banks, local authorities, public finance issuers and financial repackaged conduits. Kommunalbanken announced two ¥500 million ($4.06 million) notes that go out to 2031. Daiwa SMBC Europe led one, Mizuho led the other. It was the only local authority involved in the market. Of the private banks, BNP Paribas was the busiest as usual, but KBC Financial Products International came to the market for the ninth and tenth time this year. It announced a ¥103.74 million deal and a ¥62.24 million note. They were both self-led equity-linked deals and both go out to February next year. SNS Bank Nederland did a ¥500 million trade via Morgan Stanley. The two-year note has a fixed coupon of 0.01%. And Rabobank Nederland announced a ¥1 billion trade via Daiwa SMBC Europe. The deal was soon raised to ¥1.1 billion, and is likely to be raised again. It is an inverse floating rate note and is callable after six months. The up-front fixed coupon is 1.8%. Nordic Investment Bank was one of three supranationals issuing yen. It did a ¥1 billion 15-year CMS-linked trade. It has a fixed coupon of 2% for the first three years. World Bank did a ¥5 billion 15-year note, and European Investment Bank announced a ¥2 billion 25-year trade. Nomura was the bookrunner and the note is non-callable until 2 years have passed, and pays a fixed coupon of 4% for the first year. It then becomes a power reverse dual currency trade linked to the euro-yen exchange rate. KfW International Finance announced two trades. Both were ¥1 billion notes and both were led by Nomura. One goes out to November 2016 and is a reverse dual currency trade linked to Australian dollar. The other goes out to March 2022 and the coupon is fixed at 4% then becomes an Australian dollar-yen PRDC, callable after 16 months and annually thereafter. And Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank used Sanwa International for a ¥1 billion 12-year trade. It has a fixed step-up coupon that starts at 0.6%.

US companies continued to flood the market with bond issues this week, despite wider credit spreads resulting from the heavy supply and news that the US Treasury will stop issuing 30 year bonds. By yesterday (Thursday) more than $15bn of high grade corporate bonds had either been priced or were being marketed, on the heels of a record $29.8bn issuance last week. And there are no signs of a let-up in supply in the weeks ahead.

Kvaerner appeared to have won its long running battle to avoid bankruptcy, following the announcement on Wednesday of a long term restructuring. The Anglo-Norwegian construction and engineering company revealed that it has secured a consortium to underwrite a NKr3bn (Eu374m) rights issue. In addition, it has agreed with its lending banks that NKr4.5bn of debt will be converted to a subordinate convertible note, and existing loans will be rescheduled to the end of 2004.

Speculation this week that the Euroloan market might shut down early for the year was brushed aside by the launch of the Eu6.5bn jumbo loan for Italenergia to senior syndication.

Speculation this week that the Euroloan market might shut down early for the year was brushed aside by the launch of the Eu6.5bn jumbo loan for Italenergia to senior syndication.

Love is in the air. Morgan Stanley's Deborah Loades has confirmed that Chile will be the venue for her forthcoming honeymoon. But it is not only Deborah enjoying a bit of chilli. UBS's Gavin Eddy, Merrill's legend, Dean the dog Fogg, and Morgan Stanley's Klaus Svendsen were spotted spicing up their lives at a London curry-house last week. Leak hears they were knocking back a few pints and a Vindaloo in the hope of firing-up next week's trading. And UBS has made a new addition to its front-line. Former England football captain, Alan Shearer, has swapped the black and white stripes of his team, Newcastle, for the pinstripes of a city banker. He is set to become a representative of UBS's private banking arm. Leak hopes that UBS's Gavin Eddy and Paul Jones will now finally be able to get to grips with the offside rule. And leak hears that CSFB had a pre-Websters conference party planned for last week. But unfortunately the bank had problems drumming-up interest and the party was shelved. Leak wonders why CSFB didn't invite the boys from mtn-i and CapitalMarketDaily - everyone knows those journalist types are always up for a free drink.

The LBO market is set for a busy end to the year with a number of jumbo credits in or near the market. Loans for Cantrell & Cochrane, Cognis and Pentaplast will all be launched in one form or another. But the restructuring and write downs announced by 3i and the announcement that Photobition has gone into receivership this week highlight the difficult market conditions.

The dollar market might was shaken this week when the US Treasury on Wednesday announced that it would be suspending 30 year bond sales. This dominated developments for the rest of the week and dollar swap traders struggled to determine what this would mean for spreads. In the first instance, the effect on prices and spreads was dramatic. The news, according to one swap trader, "came right out of the blue". Although after a few hours the benefit of hindsight was leading some market participants to believe that it should not have been completely unexpected, at the time, the market was unambiguously and completely shocked. No one had predicted it.

The battle for control of the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) ended this week when shareholders accepted a bid from Euronext for £18.25 per share, valuing Liffe at £555m, which left the London Stock Exchange out in the cold and dangerously exposed. An announcement was expected from Liffe on Wednesday about its future, but Liffe surprised the market on Monday afternoon by revealing its recommendation. The deciding factor between Euronext and the LSE was in the end one of cash rather than price. With the battle now over and Euronext the victor the LSE has been left to lick its wounds and reshape its strategy.

* Former Bank of Israel governor and president of Merrill Lynch international, Jacob Frenkel, is to head the Merrill team advising Argentina on macro-economic policy and debt management. Frenkel is chairman of Merrill's sovereign advisory group, president of its financial institutions group and a member of the office of the chairman. However, it is in his other guises that Frenkel is perhaps best known. While at the Central Bank of Israel he is credited with reducing inflation, liberalising the financial markets and removing forex controls.

Kuwait Syndication is under way for the refinancing of the international debt facilities for Equate Petrochemical Co KSC.