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John Burger, managing director and head of investment grade credit at Merrill Lynch Investment Management, is looking at corporates with continued room for credit improvement. "Right now our strategy is focused around buying into crossover.

Investors should be wary of companies with big fat paychecks being cut at the ceo level because credit risk can be related to ceo compensation, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service.

The following charts show the top five advancers and decliners in terms of % moves in the loan, bond and credit default swap markets for the previous week.

Bear Stearns has hired Steffen Klein, European head of institutional equity derivative sales at Citigroup, who left that firm in February (DW 2/25).

ABN AMRO is readying the global launch of a managed, capital-protected structure linked to a portfolio of long/short credit-default swap names.

Barclays Capital is preparing to open a branch in Taipei this week to tap the growing onshore derivatives market.

Bear Stearns has hired Shiv Wallia, an official at JPMorgan in New York, in a new role as European head of credit derivatives marketing based in London.

Rentokil Initial, a U.K.-based hygiene and security company, was the center of credit-default swap buying last week, as traders positioned for spread widening in response to talk of a leveraged buyout.

A large buyer of long-dated euro/U.S. dollar volatility kicked the pair's implied volatility upward last Monday.

Calyon has bulked up its global foreign exchange options business with hires in Hong Kong and London.

Calyon has structured a leveraged super senior deal in which the underlying portfolio will be chosen by a third-party manager.

Fund managers are getting more interested in so-called cash extraction trades as a result of a recent run-up in equity prices, according to equity derivative.