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It was German issuers who were looking for large volume on Tuesday as 14 trades were closed for $1.23 billion. Hypothekenbank in Essen did a euro750 million ($679.12 million) FRN via Merrill Lynch. The note matures on May 6 2003 and pays a coupon of Euribor flat. And DaimlerChrysler Co-ordination Center closed a six-month euro150 million MTN that pays interest singularly. Rabobank Nederland also looked for volume with a public deal for euro250 million. The note was the latest tap on previous issues that now total euro1.5 billion. The note matures on September 9 2005 and pays a single coupon of 4.500%. BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley and Rabobank International all acted as lead-managers. Other issuers looked for much smaller volumes. Royal Bank of Scotland closed a four-year euro9 million MTN through BNP Paribas. The plain vanilla floater carries a final coupon of 3m Euribor+1. Fellow UK issuer, Centauri Corp, also went for low volume with a euro3 million MTN that matures on November 5 2004. The longest-dated trade came from Goldman Sachs Group - a euro65 million note that goes out to December 31 2008.

All eyes were focused on the dollar market this week as the US Treasury's suspension of 30 year auctions sent Treasuries rocketing and corporate spreads dramatically wider. Among the worst affected were recent issuers such as GMAC, whose 30 year bond widened from 277bp over Treasuries to 298bp. Kraft Foods, however, which issued a $4bn debut transaction early in the week, was able to price $2bn of five year notes, $2bn of 10 year notes and $750m of 30 year bonds tighter than comparables.

Private and public bank names were in demand in US dollar yesterday. All the issuers were single-A and above, as investors continue to be wary of taking credit risk. The mid-term saw the most demand, with only two borrowers selling notes past six years. At the short end HSBC Investment Bank (Netherlands) issued a five-week trade for $20 million. UBS (Jersey) went out to six months with a $20.80 million trade with a single interest payment and a coupon of 5.100%. HSBC Bank USA went out longer with a one-year $4 million trade. In the three-year sector three issuers closed identical trades for $13.28 million. UBS Warburg was the lead manager for the trades issued by Dexia Credit Local de France, Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz and Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein. All the trades are straight zero coupons and were issued at a discount of 90.246%, 89.645% and 89.657% respectively. They are due to settle on November 2 2001 and will mature on October 29 2004. The same three issuers also issued similar tranches of the deal in Singapore dollar. The investor is thought to be a European fund investment manager that has a fund based in Singapore. Vattenfall Treasury issued a $5 million four-and-a-half-year note, its second US dollar trade this year. The note is due on November 6. And in the six-year sector DePfa-Bank Europe closed a $20 million trade due on November 14. Commonwealth Bank of Australia went out to 11 years with a $10 million trade and Bank Austria did a $10 million plain vanilla trade via Goldman Sachs. It pays a fixed rate of 6% annually and goes out to November 14 2016.

All eyes were focused on the dollar market this week as the US Treasury's suspension of 30 year auctions sent Treasuries rocketing and corporate spreads dramatically wider. Among the worst affected were recent issuers such as GMAC, whose 30 year bond widened from 277bp over Treasuries to 298bp. Kraft Foods, however, which issued a $4bn debut transaction early in the week, was able to price $2bn of five year notes, $2bn of 10 year notes and $750m of 30 year bonds tighter than comparables.

Austria Bids for OMV's debt facility were due in on Wednesday October 31.

Woolworths, the UK general retailer, is on the road to market a £100m five year high yield bond issue. Price talk is expected late on Monday with pricing on Wednesday. The proceeds will take out a bridge loan, part of a £350m financing of the company's demerger from Kingfisher in the summer. Barclays Capital is bookrunner, while Royal Bank of Scotland is joint lead manager.

* Compagnie de Financement Foncier Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Last week ended quietly, considering the busy days before Friday. Apart from an ¥11 billion ($90.71 million) trade from DaimlerChrysler Co-ordination Centre there were no deals over ¥3 billion. BNP Paribas was bookrunner for DaimlerChrysler's deal, which goes out to March next year. It has a fixed coupon of 0.45%. Two other German borrowers announced trades. Commerzbank did a ¥762.22 million one-year deal. It pays 4%. And Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank used Daiwa SMBC Europe for a ¥1.3 billion 20-year trade. The note is callable at every coupon payment date, and has a step-up structure to its fixed payments. The coupon is 1.5% until November 2006, 1.8% until November 2011, 2.2% until November 2016 and 2.6% thereafter. Some UK issuers were to be seen in the market too. Barclays Bank did a ¥100 million 25-year trade, its 100th of the year in yen. Royal Bank of Scotland announced one of the smallest yen trades ever. The ¥1 million 20-year note has a final coupon of 4%. And Marks and Spencer did a ¥6 million trade with Tokyo-Mitsubishi as bookrunner. The one-year note has a zero-coupon structure. Continental Europe was the busiest sector however. UBS announced a ¥2 billion five-year note; Svensk Exportkredit did two trades, for ¥300 million and ¥500 million. They mature in 30 years' time. And Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank announced a ¥500 million 15-year trade. The bookrunner was UBS Warburg, and the coupon is fixed for the first year at 3% and then becomes CMS-linked. American Honda Finance and Goldman Sachs both went for ¥3 billion trades. The former's goes out to November 2003 and the latter's to November 2006.

The financial sector was dominant in yen yesterday, even more so than usual. Of the 34 trades that were announced, non-financial issuers did just four. ARV International, the BNP Paribas-backed conduit, did two of these. It announced a ¥750 million ($6.18 million) 17-month trade, and a ¥740 million five-and-a-half year trade. GMAC International Finance did a ¥8.5 billion 19-month note that pays 1.45%. And Hitachi Credit (UK) announced a ¥3 billion note that goes out to November 2006. Sanwa International was the bookrunner and the coupon is fixed at 0.56%. Of the financials, BNP Paribas and Daiwa Securities SMBC were the most active. They each announced four trades, ranging from ¥100 million to ¥1 billion, and between three months and 20-years in length. Vorarlberger Landes- und Hypothekenbank did a ¥1 billion 25-year trade with Kokusai as bookrunner. The note has a fixed coupon of 4.55% for the first two years, when it then becomes callable annually and turns into a power reverse dual currency note. The Royal Bank of Scotland announced a ¥1 billion deal that matures in November 2021. Mizuho was the dealer. Mizuho also led a deal for KfW International Finance. It was a ¥1 billion 15-year trade. And it did a ¥1 billion trade for World Bank too. The note goes out to November 2031. DaimlerChrysler Australia Pacific did a ¥3 billion four-month deal. And Deutsche Bank, the only other German issuer in the market yesterday except for KfW, did a ¥1 billion 12-year note that pays 1.2%.

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.