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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.

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.