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You have to feel slightly sorry for the good folk at Merrill Lynch, the firm that seems to find itself in the press almost every day, but for all of the wrong reasons. At the beginning of the year, the firm was in its customary position as the cornerstone of the US financial services industry. It had seen off blue-collar upstarts such as Charles Schwab, which had the impudence to try and tweak Merrill's tail. To its many admirers around the world, Merrill looked more solid than the Rock of Gibraltar. But 2001 has been an annus horibilis for Merrill. Rather than resembling the Rock of Gibraltar, the firm began to wobble like a blancmange at a summer staff picnic. Merrill discovered too late that it had too many eggs in the equities basket. When demand for equities disappeared, firms like Lehman caught a cold, but houses such as Merrill, Goldman and Morgan Stanley, whose investment banking businesses thrive in rising stockmarkets, contracted pneumonia.

Brazil * Banco Bradesco SA

* Achmea Hypotheekbank NV Rating: AA-

* Agence France Trésor Rating: Aaa/AAA

The number of euro trades was down as last week drew to a close but volumes were large. Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg closed an 18-month euro500 million ($448.71 million) note via Merrill Lynch. The plain vanilla note pays interest of 3m Euribor flat. Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen also did a euro500 million trade. The plain vanilla note carries a final coupon of 5.500% and was joint-led by ABN Amro and SG Investments. And Goldman Sachs closed a euro250 million MTN that pays interest singularly. Gas Natural was a busy issuer doing trades for euro40 million and euro100 million. Both notes pay interest quarterly and mature next October. Societe Generale also closed two trades for euro1.67 million and euro3.45 million. Both notes go out to October 19 2011. Bank Austria issued the longest-dated trade - a euro12 million plain vanilla trade that has a tenor of 30-years. The note pays a coupon of 5.935% and was led by HypoVereinsbank.

The number of euro trades shot up to 17 yesterday with many smaller volumes being done. Gallaher Group made the fourth trade off its £

Yesterday saw the busiest trading in the MTN market for quite some time. And euro was no exception as 29 trades were closed for $2.71 billion equivalent. Telefonica Europe dominated volume with two euro1 billion ($892.25 million) trades that were part of the same tranche. One was for three years and pays interest on an annual basis. The other was a five-year note that pays a coupon of 5.125% annually. There were five bookrunners for the trade: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, BNP Paribas, Invercaixa Valores SVB, JPMorgan and Salomon Smith Barney. Westfalische Hypothekenbank (WestHyp) was the busiest issuer in terms of the number of trades made, closing four notes for euro315 million in total. It did a euro250 million note that matures on May 5 2004. The note has a coupon of 3m Libor flat. ABN Amro was the bookrunner. Deutsche Bank led a four-year euro25 million note for the issuer that has a fixed coupon of 4.125%. And Deutsche Bank also lead-managed WestHyp's other two trades - for euro8 million and euro32 million. The notes are straight floaters and have coupons of 3m Libor flat. They both mature on May 9 2006. ABN Amro was also busy placing a note for Hypothekenbank in Essen. The note was for euro25 million and has a tenor of one-year. The plain vanilla note carries a coupon 3.360%. And Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank did a euro10 million note that goes out to December 26 2013. The note is linked to underlying securities. Westdeutsche Landesbank was the bookrunner.

The agency market got closer to business as usual this week as $6.5bn of Fannie Mae Benchmark bullet issuance hit the market without causing much of a ripple. There were few complaints about the meagre $250m re-opening of Fannie's 30 year bond, as the wide levels in that part of the curve are partly reflective of a lack of demand.

Euro trading was strong on Thursday with a good mix of volumes and maturities. Landswirtschaftliche Rentenbank closed a euro1 billion ($893.18 million) MTN, which was by far the largest trade made. The note pays a final coupon of 4.125% and matures on February 16 2007. Marks and Spencer Finance also looked for volume with a five-year euro550 million MTN that pays an annual coupon of 5.125%. GE Capital Australia closed for euro200 million MTN. The note pays interest quarterly and has a tenor of one-year. Unibail added a euro50 million tranche to a euro130 million fungible trade it closed in July of this year. The note was led by CDC IXIS Capital Markets. Fellow French issuer, La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild Banque, did a euro7 million trade that matures on November 2 2004. Centauri Corp closed two euro3.55 million trades. One of the notes matures on November 3 2004 and the other on November 2 2006. And Credit Lyonnais Finance (Guernsey) issued a euro10 million MTN. The note has a four-month maturity and carries a high single coupon of 21.00%. Other issuers looked for maturity. BBVA Capital Funding traded the longest-dated note. Its euro55 million issue goes out to November 2 2016 and pays interest on a quarterly basis. Barclays Bank closed a euro10 million note that reaches out to November 16 2011. And Banque Internationale a Luxembourg did a 10-year euro10 million note.

The first Euro-CP signing in over a year from the German private bank sector happened on Tuesday, October 23. Deutsche Apotheker- und Arztebank's (DAPO Bank) euro1 billion ($893.18 million) programme takes the number of live programmes from that sector to 31. Deutsche Bank is the arranger off DAPO Bank's facility. The lack of recent signings means Michael Grimm, head of funding at DAPO Bank, is confident of being noticed by investors. He says: " We won't do a roadshow but next week we will visit our dealers in London and do a short presentation of what we want." The first trade will be done in early November and most of the outstandings, which will be maintained at around euro300 million to euro500 million, will be denominated in euro, although US dollar and sterling will also be used. Grimm, who is also responsible for DAPO Bank's euro6 billion Euro-MTN facility, adds: "We were able to lower our funding needs last year and have found that in the short term volatility is not so bad. I don't think we will have a problem with issuing what we want." The dealers are the arranger, Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley and Westdeutsche Landesbank.

GMAC International Finance has upped the ceiling off its euro25 billion Euro-MTN shelf to euro35 billion ($31.33 billion). The programme has $24.10 billion outstanding off 208 trades.

Ford priced a Eu1bn two year FRN, a $1.5bn three year FRN, and $3bn five year and $2.5bn 10 year fixed rate deals this week for Ford Motor Credit Corp (FMCC). At the same time, Ford re-opened the 7.45% July 2031 Global Landmark Security (GlobLS) for Ford Motor Company with an additional $1.5bn. The offering was originally conceived as a $3bn benchmark for FMCC. The borrower typically declines to comment on its derivative business, but large portions of debt offerings on behalf of FMCC are usually swapped back to floating rate dollars to match its assets. It is highly likely that this happened to the offering priced this week. In other words, the two year Eu1bn floater was probably swapped to floating dollars, the $1.5bn three year floater was probably left in floating dollars, the five and 10 year fixed rate tranches were probably swapped to floating dollars, while the 30 year piece would have been left in fixed dollars.