The rally of the last two months in financial markets came to an end last week with equity and credit default swap indices going backwards. Some suggested that this is the start of a correction in the markets, while a more sanguine view is that this represents little more than a bit of profit-taking in response to weaker than expected economic news. The one certainty was that markets could not continue to rally at the rate that they had.Nevertheless bond issuance continued apace, even if it was more in offshore markets than domestically. Non-government guaranteed bank bond issuance in particular was prominent, with Citigroup selling US$2.0 billion of ten-year, non-guaranteed, bonds on Friday night - its first such issue in nine months. And while an expected non government-guaranteed three-year issue from Westpac did not eventuate, Reuters reported that the bank was meeting with investors in North America. Apparently Suncorp Metway treasury managers were also travelling through Asia last week.