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Wachovia Securities has hired three traders and sales professionals to kick-start a listed options/exchange traded fund (ETF) business in the U.S., and is hunting an additional three sales staffers for the operation. Todd Steinberg, managing director and head of equity linked products in New York, said the products will be structured with over-the-counter options and settled through the exchange.

The snow in the Northeast certainly wreaked havoc last week, causing meetings to be cancelled and many bankers to stay home. But the freak weather was not all bad with some loan market players "stranded" whilst on holiday in places such as Vermont and Florida.

Napoleon Rodgers, portfolio manager at Alpha Capital Management, says he wants to rotate 7%, or $14 million of the firm's $200 million portfolio, from mortgage-backed securities into high-quality corporates rated single-A or higher. The rationale is to bring corporate exposure, which is currently 22%, to just above the Lehman Brothers benchmark level of 28-29%. Rodgers wants to pick up additional yield but will selectively add higher-rated names as he fears that geopolitical developments will lead to a corporate sell-off with spreads "blowing out" for speculative paper. He will buy corporates in the three- to 10-year maturity range, and his buying target for single-A rated corporate bonds, which last week traded at 200-250 basis points over Treasuries, is 25 to 40 basis points wider.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership is keeping a large cash position in its U.K. bond fund, because it is cautious about the bond market on the whole. David Millar, head of government bonds at the Edinburgh-based manager, says that although he is seeing a slow and gradual economic recovery, he is aware of the geopolitical risks out there, which is making the firm cautious about expressing a strong opinion. The £125 million U.K. bond fund holds government and corporate bonds and uses the Barclays Capital sterling all-stocks index as its benchmark.

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.

Cavanaugh Capital Management will buy some $50 million in mortgage-backed securities. Jim Dugan, portfolio manager of $700 million in taxable fixed-income, says that with interest rates a bit higher than their lows, and perhaps climbing as geopolitical risk subsides, he sees prepayment risks diminishing. Cavanuagh will buy shorter-maturity securities that have lower extension risk than conventional 30-year pass throughs. These include 15-year Ginnie Mae midgets, balloon mortgages with a final maturity of five- to seven-years and certain Planned Amortization Class (PAC) bonds that are structured to limit extension risk. Dugan says Cavanaugh is in the market now making the purchases, and hopes to have the program complete within three weeks.

Raymond James & Associates Inc. is looking to hire two to four additional salespeople with experience in high-yield or high-grade fixed-income. Larry Haag, New York branch manager for the St. Petersburg, Fla. firm, says Raymond James has gradually been growing its corporate bond business for the past eight years and the new hires would be consistent with that effort. He says he has already begun interviewing for the positions.

RCN Corp.'s bank debt has climbed up almost 20 points over the last month amid murmurs that a possible amendment could be in the works. Pieces of the company's "B" loan were said to have traded up as high as 80 two weeks ago before settling down in the 77-79 context. "It's no secret that our balance sheet is such that we would like to reduce the debt," said Jim Downing, a RCN investor relations spokesperson, declining to comment further on a possible amendment.

Ed Shugrue, the former chief financial officer of Capital Trust, has launched his own firm, ES Capital Management, and is set to raise capital for a fund that will invest in high-yield real estate debt, according to BW sister publication Real Estate Finance & Investment. Shugrue, a veteran of the commercial real estate industry, said he is hoping to raise $150-300 million in the next six to 12 months for the as yet unnamed fund. With leverage, the fund will have up to $1 billion in buying power will target high-yield commercial real estate debt, including mezzanine debt, commercial mortgage-backed securities, B-notes, preferred equity, listed debt securities and collateralized debt obligations. Shugrue is talking with potential investors but acknowledges that current geopolitical uncertainties might prolong the capital raising period. "It's not an easy time in the world right now," he said.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), which manages roughly £23 billion in fixed-income assets, is planning to add to its corporate credit research team on a select basis. Alan Reid, global head of bonds in Edinburgh, says the European credit market continues to grow, creating the need to bring more analysts on board. Reid says the hires will likely be at a junior level and that the firm does not have a specific number of hires in mind.