Activity bounced back in international and local corporate bond markets last week.

 On Tuesday, Apple issued US$12 billion of bonds and IBM sold US$5 billion in the US. And on the same day a total of nine issuers in the Euromarket sold bonds with a face value of €14 billion.

In the domestic corporate bond market there was a surprise A$2.25 billion three-year floating-rate note issue from National Australia Bank (rated AA-) on Thursday. The notes priced at 98 basis points over bank bills.

The pricing continues the widening trend and is approaching July 2012 levels, when the major banks were paying 100 bps for three-year funds.

Apart from NAB, issuance in the domestic market was limited to supranational, sovereign and agency issuers, mostly tapping existing lines.

Kommunalbanken (rated AAA) added $40 million to its July 2025 line, taking the size of the line to $915 million. Pricing was 63.5 bps over commonwealth government securities.International Finance Corporation (rated AAA) added $35 million to its July 2026 line, taking the size of the line to $210 million. Pricing was 52.75 bps over CGS.KfW (rated AAA) added to its January 2019 line, now worth a total of $1.5 billion. Pricing was 62.5 bps over CGS.Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (AAA) opened a new August 2026 line at $50 million, priced at 75.75 bps over CGS.

Offshore, Macquarie Bank made its first issue from its newly established covered bond program and Westpac also sold covered bonds.

Macquarie Bank sold €500 million of covered bonds with a five year term to maturity. The bonds priced at 40 bps over swaps, which according to NAB, translates back into Australian dollars at 126 bps over bank bills.Westpac sold US$1.35 billion of five-year covered bonds, priced at 98 bps over swaps. This should translate to 122 bps over Australian bank bills.