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Last week saw weakness throughout the high-yield market, except for a slight rally on the back of equities Thursday afternoon. Media and energy were among the stronger performers, though prices were still lower in these sectors. The primary market remains closed to most issuers, but FMC Corp., a chemical manufacturer, sold $355 million of senior secured notes. Here is other action.

David Weigert is joining Hartford Investment Management's asset-backed securities group as an ABS analyst with a special focus on home equity bonds, says Allan Berliant, ABS group chief at HIMCO, who hired him from Aeltus Investment Management. Weigert was an ABS trader at Aeltus, also located in Hartford. He could not be reached for comment. Weigert will report to Berliant and will start next Monday.

Aryeh Bourkoff, high-yield cable and satellite analyst at UBS Warburg in Stamford, Conn., will add equity coverage to his research duties. It could not be determined who, if anyone, handled equity coverage previously. Bourkoff referred questions on the subject to Kris Kagel, a UBSW spokesman, who declined comment.

Recent weakness in the bonds of United Rentals, a roughly $1.4 billion junk issuer with the largest market share among North American equipment rental companies, has created an attractive buying opportunity, according to at least one portfolio manager and one sell-side analyst. Fort Washington Investment Advisors in Cincinnati added $1 million of the company's 10.75% notes of '08 (B1/BB) to its portfolio because the bonds are quite senior in the company's capital structure, says Brendan White, manager of $1.1 billion in junk bonds at the firm. White says Fort Washington will add more bonds if the company hits its fourth quarter numbers and business and economic trends show signs of improvement.

Marc Lasry, managing partner of Avenue Capital Group, is in the process of raising capital for a new distressed debt fund Avenue Special Situations Fund III. The firm has raised approximately $600 million in commitments and is looking to raise an additional $150-200 million in the next three months, Lasry said. Avenue Capital also will be hiring additional analysts to support the new fund.

Expected returns in this latest go-around through the corporate credit cycle are not likely to be as high as when defaults peaked in the early 90s, according to conference participants. Historically, the greatest returns for investments in distressed debt have come at the times of greatest supply, said Marc Lasry, managing partner of Avenue Capital. But while the supply of distressed debt may be at an all-time high, return rates have yet to reach the levels experienced in the early 90s. According to data from Credit Suisse First Boston, overall default recovery rates in the early 90s were roughly 37%, compared to recovery rates of only 27.6% for the 2000-2001 period.

Lehman Brothers' London-based head of European equity derivatives sales Francois Pham-Quang has left the firm to open a fund specializing in the securitization of music industry assets, according to BW sister publication Derivatives Week. The fund, called The Music Fund, will securitize the future earnings of several types of music assets, such as catalogues of published songs. The concept is similar to The Pullman Group's securitization of royalty streams, colloquially know as Bowie bonds. However, the financial technology used will look more like mortgage-backed securities, according to Pham-Quang. He predicted the fund would start trading when it has raised $150 million. It has seed capital of some $30 million.

European securitization analysts are not overly concerned about the huge amount of asset-backed paper scheduled to hit the market this quarter. Analysts expect between E40-55 billion in new deals to price this quarter, but believe the market will be able to absorb it. The European ABS market saw a substantial amount of issuance last year and spreads did not widen, notes Robert Paterson, head of securitization research at Morgan Stanley in London. Last year, E56.4 billion in ABS paper was priced in the fourth quarter. Paterson says investors still consider asset-backeds to be a safe haven from corporate bond volatility. Approximately E83 billion in European ABS paper has been issued year-to-date. Analysts expect the total to reach between E125-135 billion by Dec. 31.

European asset-backed investors, who traditionally would buy into collateralized debt obligation equity tranches, are beginning to consider consumer ABS equity tranches as a diversification play, says Birgit Specht, head of European securitization research at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London. Investors are moving down the credit curve in the consumer sector due to continued volatility in the corporate bond markets, she adds.

Exopack recently replaced $130 million of senior and subordinated debt with a new $120 million credit led by BNP Paribas in order to lower its borrowing costs, according toJohn Heaps, cfo. The company originally secured the debt in conjunction with its spinoff from International Paper. But with a year of solid performance under its belt, the Spartanburg, S.C., specialty packaging company was prepared to return to the market, Heaps said.

XL Capital Assurance, a New York-based financial guarantor, has added two analysts to its credit group. Delia Fance, group v.p. consumer products at ABN AMRO, joins as managing director, responsible for credit analysis of corporate bonds. She reports to Patrick Mathis, senior managing director and chief credit officer, who heads the credit group. Fance was unavailable to comment. She replaces Neil Pack, who has been promoted to head of West Coast public finance.

Banc of America Securities, Salomon Smith Barney and Wachovia Securities have reduced the size of the proposed bank deal for FMC Corp. by $50 million following the issuance of $355 million of senior secured notes. The 101/ 4% notes were priced in a very tough market at 98.7 to yield 101/ 2%, one banker said. Calls to the company and the banks were not returned.