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The global credit market suffered a week that most of its participants would sooner forget as concerns about the outcome of next week's FOMC meeting and the upcoming non-farm payroll figures quickly eroded the stability brought about by last week's better-than- expected CPI figures. All sides of the market are hoping for some firm direction from the Fed on interest rates. A rise is widely expected, with the debate centring around whether the Fed will implement a 25bp or 50bp hike.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is preparing to provide a £1bn bridge loan to UK pub company Punch Taverns, if its £2.7bn bid for the pub, liquor store and soft drinks interests of Allied Domecq is successful. The US house plans not to syndicate the debt, but to proceed immediately to a securitisation of some of the pubs. The businesses Allied Domecq is selling are some 3,500 pubs, including managed and tenanted houses, a stake in the First Quench chain of off-licence shops, and a 25% stake in Britannia, which controls soft drinks manufacturer Britvic.

Nosediving European government bond markets combined with heavy supply this week to push the euro credit market to its limit. While investors watched the spectacle as lead managers and borrowers competed for their attention, few entered the turbulent market. But fears of oversupply continue. Several corporates are set to tap the market next week, although Mannesmann will avoid the nerves in the fixed rate market when it launches a Eu2bn-plus three year floater paying around Euribor plus 20bp via Balaba, Commerzbank and Paribas.

First Pacific, Legend, Shandong sales underline HK/China uptick

Standard & Poor's this week reported an enthusiastic response to its new on-line credit scoring system, CreditModel. The system was officially launched last Friday in response to growing demand for access to the rating agency's quantitative analysis techniques. While many banks maintain their own credit scoring systems, the importance that many investors and regulators place on the rating agencies' opinions has led to demand for a way of calibrating internal systems against rating agency methods - demand that could grow should the recent credit oriented risk weighting plans of the Basle Committee come into force.

Daniel Tyree, who has been chairman of Lehman Brothers Asia since 1995 has been named head of a newly created marketing and corporate relations function based in New York. "As a member of the Lehman Brothers operating committee and as the former head of our European and Asian operation, Dan brings a unique wealth of knowledge that will enable him to take on his new responsibilities with the skill and experience that the job requires," said Richard Fuld, chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers. "Because of its importance the job requires the full time attention of one of our most senior and experienced executives."