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The article presents a study on the economic data of the Corporate Bond Credit in the U.S. According to the author, movements in the corporate bond spreads are important to many investors and potentially informative forward-looking metrics of market sentiment. The studies reviewed show that more than half of the variation in corporate bond credit spreads is not related to the financial health of the issuing firm, but rather reflects effects such as compensation for liquidity risk.

The article presents a forecast of the corporate bond market in China as of March 2007. The country's bond market is very small, contributing only 27 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The reason behind the small bond market is due to the small number of institutional investors interested in purchasing corporate bonds and to the lack of incentives for firms issuing bonds.

The article reports that the board of directors of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. has agreed the issuance of convertible bonds with detachable warrants and the issuance of domestic corporate bonds. It intends to issue up to 30 billion renminbi convertible bonds with detachable warrants to institutional investors and the public investors. The proposals are subject to approval by the Extraordinary General Meeting of the company and relevant authorities to be held on November 15, 2007.