[lorenzo63]

This year's dramatic recovery in risk appetites began in the corporate bond market. Could it end there too? A string of weak U.S. macroeconomic data last week, culminating in Friday's poor employment report, sent a shudder through a market that has delivered returns of 14% to 15% for investors in the U.S., U.K. and Europe so far this year. This may be just a hiccup. But there are signs investors may be starting to take some money off the table.

An example is the sudden rise in the amount of corporate bonds purchased by the Bank of England under its quantitative easing program. On Friday, the BOE spent £113 million ($180.3 million) on buying bonds -- the most in any single operation since it launched the program in late March. By contrast, in July and August its purchases of bonds had dwindled to close to zero. Even more telling, market-makers offered to sell the BOE over £330 million of bonds -- another record amount, according to Evolution Securities.

That may simply reflect the continuing debate over exit strategies: Banks are keenly aware that some unusual facilities such as the BOE program have a limited life, and so may be keen to take advantage of them while they exist. In similar fashion, this may explain some of the recent activity in government-guaranteed bond sales by banks -- such as those by Citigroup -- even as additional sources of funding such as senior unsecured debt and covered bonds have become more accessible.

The alternative explanation is that investors have done so well this year they are looking to lock in profits ahead of the approaching year-end. That may be particularly true of investors who are new to credit, such as those who have piled into retail corporate bond funds, who may prove more flighty than traditional asset managers. If that phenomenon gathered pace, the risk is that could reduce liquidity in the corporate bond markets, further pressuring prices.

At the least, there could be a shift toward sectors seen as safe havens. ING on Monday advised European credit investors to switch out of cyclical bonds that have rallied hardest and move into safer noncyclical credits such as telecoms, summing up their view snappily as: "Take the money and run."