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--John Herrmann, director of economic commentary at Cantor Viewpoint, on Federal Reserve governor Ben Bernanke's perceived aspirations to replace Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Fed.

The price of protection on U.K. drinks company Allied Domecq jumped last week, following news it is in talks with rival Pernod Ricard about a possible takeover by Pernod.

Banque AIG Securities plans to set up a desk to issue privately placed securities in Japan.

Frédéric Lainé, Asian head of the interest rate, currency and commodity group at Calyon in Hong Kong, has added credit derivatives and origination to his remit.

Synthetic collateralized debt obligation managers, including AXA Investment Managers and Prudential M&G, are looking at launching 10-year deals when the liquidity and economics in the long-end of the credit derivatives market improves.

In this Learning Curve we value the so-called loss cap, an important structural feature that distinguishes synthetic collateralized debt obligation squareds from synthetic CDOs.

Barclays Capital and Eurohypo are pitching swaps between different property market sectors to investors.

Fund derivatives with exotic payoffs will follow hot on the heels of HFR Asset Management launching a fund to short its HFRX Global Hedge Fund index (DW, 4/24).

Demand for short-dated yen calls declined last week after the Japanese currency depreciated against the U.S. dollar.

GFI has started brokering trades designed to eliminate maturity mismatches in derivatives houses' credit-default swap portfolios because of increasing concerns about gap risk, said Ian Clague, managing director for North America in New York.

Indian fixed income traders are preparing for the return of interest rate futures in the coming weeks.