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High-yield investors spent much of the year fighting for allocations in low-quality deals in a bid for yield, while at the same time complaining about loose covenants, tight pricing and the use of proceeds.

Hillswick Asset Management will put new cash to work in 20-year Treasury strips.

In lieu of sending out Christmas gifts and cards, Markit, previously called Mark-It Partners/LoanX, is planning to re-build a secondary school in Malole, Zambia.

Windsor Financial Group may add $110 million in corporates should spreads on five-year, single-A credits widen.

Egan-Jones Ratings plans to open an office in Europe to offer European investors a level of impartial analysis unavailable from Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Services and Fitch Ratings, according to Sean Egan, managing director.

A rare public finance issue is expected to hit the U.K. bond market next month to finance the acquisition of a gas pipeline connecting Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Bond market professionals are not known to provide the same kind of sound bytes their equity counterparties have become famous (or infamous) for in recent years.

This chart, provided by Citigroup Global Markets, tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market. It also tracks facility amounts, ratings, pricing and maturities.

Volatility in Treasuries sank to its lowest level in the past decade in 2004, in large part due to the Federal Reserve's widely telegraphed rate hikes and the lack of any exogenous shocks.

Sales of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities grew by 142% and were expanded across different maturities this year because of rising inflation fears.

-- Anders Ekernas, president of Hillswick Asset Management, on how the dollar has likely already bottomed out.

Garrett Kanehann, v.p. with Questor Management Co. on selecting Banc of America Securities to lead a second-lien loan financing the acquisition of Polar Corp.