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National Australia Bank has hired its first two sales professionals to kick-start its commodities derivatives sales business in the U.S. and has added one staffer to its interest rate derivatives sales team. Robert Cone, senior v.p. and head of the markets division for the Americas in New York, said the firm has also entered into talks with U.S.-based distributors with a view to entering into a joint venture to distribute over-the-counter commodity derivatives products in the U.S., but he declined to name the firms.

SG Securities has transferred Frank Drouet, managing director and head of equity derivatives trading for Asia in Hong Kong, to Tokyo. As part of the move he has assumed additional responsibility for Japan. Drouet referred calls to the press office, where Huneeus Cristobal, spokesman in Tokyo, declined comment.

Five-year credit protection on communications giant AOL Time Warner narrowed to 165 basis points last Monday, from 185bps the previous Wednesday, on news that its chairman, Steve Case has resigned. AOL was one of the only firms which tightened last week as there was a general widening of protection prices. In fact, swap spreads on the multi-media company also moved wider later in the week trading at 195bps Wednesday as general market weakness impacted most corporates, said a trader in New York. The default-swap market had experienced a huge rally the week before and a pullback was due, added the trader.

TD Securities has signed on Mark Mullahy, exotic equity derivatives trader at JPMorgan in London, as a managing director in equity derivatives trading, working out of its New York office. Joseph Hegener, vice chair in New York and to whom Mullahy reports, explained that in spite of difficult market conditions, TD Securities' equity derivatives business has been making money, which has led to the new hire. General market malaise also makes it an opportune time to pick up good people, he added. TD Securities plans to hire an additional three equity derivatives traders and structurers, bringing the team up to eight, said Hegener. Mullahy started last week.

The price of U.S. dollar/yen options spiked last week as traders snapped up short-dated options after the greenback rallied to JPY118.30 in the spot market. Proprietary trading desks and hedge funds bought one-week and two-week dollar puts/yen calls Tuesday at strikes of JPY118 and JPY117.50, respectively. The trades caused one-month implied volatility to rise to 11.75% from 10.5% on Tuesday. By Thursday, however, volatility had dropped back down to 10.5%. Traders said a total of USD1 billion of dollar puts were executed.

Bankers got down and dirty at Fleet Capital's launch for Simplicity Manufacturing. After the meeting, disregarding their formal apparel, bankers took turns at driving the company's tractors on its 40-acre, Port Washington, Wis., test field. "It was a sight to behold," said Al Meier, executive v.p. at Fleet (see story, page 7).

The Deal Roll-off Chart, provided by Capital DATA Loanware, lists the 50 largest leveraged credit facilities in the U.S. market that are due to mature in the coming month. It is designed to provide a look at potentially available money in the market as credits are renewed or retired.

The market for cable names could be showing signs of life as one deal wraps and another comes out of the woodwork, indicating that the bank market and the troubled sector may finally be back on speaking terms. Bank of New York has filled, after over a three-month effort, its $165 million Patriot Media and Communications acquisition credit. TD Securities and J.P. Morgan plan to launch, after icing the deal for a similar length of time, broadband communications provider Bresnan Communications' ballpark $400 million acquisition deal.

This chart, provided by Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney Inc., tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market. It also tracks facility amounts, ratings, pricing and maturities.

Lisa Black, portfolio manager at TIAA-CREF, says she will rotate 3% of the $365 million Bond Plus portfolio she manages, or $11 million, from Treasuries into corporates, as new corporate bond issues that offer spreads typically five to 10 basis points wider than outstanding debt come to market. In addition, Black expects corporate spreads to continue to tighten as the economy begins to recover. She says there is no trigger for this move.

Insight Investment, which manages £25 billion in global government bonds, has been buying long-dated U.S. Treasuries in the 10- to 30-year sector. The firm has allocated roughly 5% of its global fixed-income assets to this trade. As a sterling investor, Treasuries offer good value because they are high yielding and the manager can hedge the currency risk cheaply as the dollar continues to be weak versus the pound, says Chris Hartley, London-based director of fixed income. Hartley says the hedge has been working because the forward foreign exchange rate is at a better rate for the sterling investor than the spot rate. The firm has been using this strategy, although on a smaller scale, in the European sovereign bond market.

More than $20 million of Federal-Mogul's bank debt changed hands last week, rising up from the mid-to-low 60s into the 67 1/2 to 68 1/2 range on hopes that a resolution to the company's bankruptcy proceedings will be hammered out soon. The paper climbed after the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and the Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants filed a motion to terminate Federal-Mogul's exclusive right to file a plan of reorganization. "Serious negotiations are going on," said Michael Lynch, Federal Mogul cfo. "It's a sign that the process is proceeding," he added, declining to comment further citing the private nature of the negotiations. The hearing to discuss this motion will be held on Jan. 29.