There is some mounting evidence that the risk appetite of fixed income investors is starting to improve. On Thursday in the US, Goldman Sachs sold US$2 billion of ten-year bonds without a US government guarantee. The bonds sold on the strength of Goldman's A/A1/A+ credit ratings from S&P, Moody's and Fitch respectively, and were priced at a mere 500 bps over US Treasuries.Clearly however, investors are still not overly enamoured with banks and would prefer to take true corporate credit risk, even when it is more lowly rated. On the same day, General Mills Inc. rated BBB+/Baa1/BBB+, priced US$1.15 billion of ten-year bonds, at only 287.5 bps over US Treasuries. Earlier in the week it was reported that the US junk bond market was enjoying a resurgence in investor interest. High yield mutual funds re-entered the market in December, and up to January 21 had invested US$5 billion. In fact, the US$3.4 billion invested in January alone, already put the market 75 per cent ahead of the issuance seen for the whole month in 2008. A further US$1.4 billion of junk bonds were expected to be issued last week, reportedly driven by reverse enquiries.But just to remind us of one of the other realities of credit markets at the present time, the Bank of England announced on Thursday, that it would start to invest £50 billion that has been allocated to buy corporate bonds and commercial paper to get credit markets moving again. A special purpose vehicle will be established to buy and hold the assets acquired.Buying will take place on a regular and on-going basis in an effort to improve market liquidity and may be extended to asset-backed securities and syndicated loans. Holdings will be unwound when market conditions improve or upon maturity, whichever occurs first.