Broadly rosier sentiment about Europe's ability to contain its debt crisis prompted a rash of companies to issue debt Monday, with their combined tally of corporate bond sales already north of $9.5 billion.

Leading the charge is coal giant Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU), with a $2.75 billion deal to help fund its interests in Australian coking-coal mining company Macarthur Coal Ltd. (MCC.AU); WPX Energy Inc. with a $1.5 billion deal partly to finance a special payment to its parent, Williams Cos. (WMB); and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) with a $1.25 billion deal.

Pressure on Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign and expectations for a more unified Greek government helped to lay the foundations for what promises to be a strong day for corporate issuance. "Europe held it together over the weekend," said one debt syndicate banker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Friday's deals, including a $2 billion issue from Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), were well received amid pent-up demand and "did not lead to big new issue concessions," the person added, referring to companies having pay a premium to entice investors into new debt deals.

Borrowers have been especially sensitive recently to market conditions, deciding whether to issue or not based on the severity of euro-zone headlines, and that led to busy Thursdays in the last two weeks but a slump early each week.

Companies issued $13.8 billion of bonds on Oct. 27, for example, and $12.5 billion on the next Thursday, Nov. 3, according to data provider Dealogic. That made those two days the fourth and seventh busiest in volume terms for all of 2011.

This Monday arrived with a more positive tone, however. The investment-grade market "would seem to be benefiting from an agreement on a national unity government in Greece, despite a tremendous amount of work ahead of them, and rumors that Berlusconi will step down," said Adrian Miller, senior vice president at Miller Tabak Roberts Securities, LLC.

St. Louis-based Peabody is selling 7- and 10-year debt in a sale marketed to qualified institutional buyers, WPX is selling 5- and 10-year bonds also in a private placement, and UnitedHealth is selling 5-, 10- and 30-year debt.

Also in the market were three funding units of Israeli drug maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA), with proceeds earmarked for paying down debt used to close on its recent acquisition of Cephalon, Inc. (CEPH); biotechnology company Amgen Inc. (AMGN), which is selling 3-, 5-, 10- and 30-year debt to fund a tender offer for $5 billion of its own shares; and Philip Morris International Inc. (PM), which wants to buy back stock and refinance debt.

Separately, Newcrest Finance Property Ltd., a unit of Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM.AU, NCMGY), is selling $750 million of 10- and 30-year bonds; Canadian National Railway (CNI, CNR.T) is selling $700 million in 5- and 10-year bonds; Zimmer Holdings Inc. (ZMH) is selling $550 million in 3- and 10-year debt; and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (DPS) is selling a $500 million deal comprising 7- and 10-year bonds to retire 1.7% senior notes maturing Dec. 21.

Dave Sekera, a bond strategist at research company Morningstar Inc., said in a note Monday that the deal from Dr Pepper should be "well oversubscribed," citing the "strong bid in the market for high-quality, defensive names."

"We're always one Europe headline away from the market pulling back and the window for issuance closing, so companies are better off coming sooner than later," Sekera added.

The average corporate bond in Morningstar's corporate bond index is trading with a risk premium of 217 basis points, or 2.17 percentage points, over comparable government debt. With 10-year government debt now yielding about 2%, that puts the average nominal interest rate or coupon on corporate bonds in the index just over 4%.

-By Katy Burne, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3084; katy.burne@dowjones.com

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