"European dealers are not anxious to take spreads better," said a bond trader in London.
The most liquid auto and telecom names all gave up morning session gains to end the day unchanged.
General Motors' 8.375 percent euro bond due in July 2033 was bid at 401 basis points more than government debt.
In the telecoms sector, France Telecom's 8.125 percent euro bond due January 28 2033 was unchanged at 75 basis points more than government bonds, while Telecom Italia's 7.75 percent euro bond due January 2033, issued via Olivetti, was also flat at 88 basis points more than government debt.
Ireland sold a $500 million five-year bond at a spread of 10 basis points over the 3.5 percent US Treasury bond due February 2010, lead manager Barclays Capital said on Thursday.
This was Ireland's first US dollar bond sale since 1994, and the final spread came in line with guidance announced earlier on Thursday.
The deal, due July 15 2010, pays a coupon of 3.875 percent and has a fixed reoffer price of 99.804, Barclays said.
Ireland was aiming to take advantage of market conditions by issuing in dollars and swapping the proceeds to euros to reduce funding costs.
The National Treasury Management Agency said in a statement the bond sale would provide funds at 29.3 basis points under Euribor, the benchmark European floating interest rate.
That would make for a saving of around 3.5 million euros over the life of the five-year bond versus a traditional auction, the NTMA said.
In the pipeline, German-based packaging company Gerresheimer Glas will begin marketing a 150 million euro high-yield bond next week, a banking source familiar with the deal said.
US private equity firm the Blackstone Group acquired Gerresheimer from J.P. Morgan Partners and Investcorp for an undisclosed sum in November. Proceeds from the bond sale will provide funding for the leveraged buyout.
The bond will have a 10-year maturity and the sale will be managed by J.P. Morgan and CSFB.
And French water treatment firm Saur will issue a 235 million euro high-yield bond in late March or early April as part of its leveraged buyout financing, a market source said on Thursday.
France's Bouygues signed a deal in late November to sell Saur for just over 1 billion euros to private equity firm PAI (Paribas Affaires Industrielles) Partners. The deal closed and was funded on Tuesday.
Private equity firms buy companies in leveraged buyouts by injecting some of their own cash and raising the rest of the money by piling debt onto the target company.
The high-yield bond, which is likely to have a 10-year maturity, will replace a bridge loan of the same amount, the source said.
BNP Paribas are arranging the financing for the buyout.