The Argentine floating-rate bond due in 2005 rose almost $1 in price yesterday, and is up 9.5 percent since the swap proposal was announced.

On Monday, the prices of Argentine bonds fell sharply, pushing interest rates higher, and the country's main stock index dropped 8.7 percent.

Lacking sufficient reserves to support the Argentine bonds until they got their house in order.

The new order of things is clearly good for the financial system, if not for the unfortunate owners of Argentine bonds.

It is easy to sneer at the Italian investors who bought the Argentine bonds.

Despite a big rally yesterday, an index of Argentine bonds has plunged almost 25 percent since its high in February.

Prices of Argentine bonds that come due in 2008 slipped 10 percent yesterday.

The initial reaction elsewhere was surprisingly muted, given that Argentine bonds make up nearly a quarter of the debt issued by emerging-market countries.

Still, she bought about $15 million of the Argentine bonds, a large purchase for her, and put them in three different Dreyfus funds.

Investors then sent interest rates on Argentine bonds soaring.