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The dog days of August, indeed. One dealer said, "It's definitely August," as few names and significant trades have been talked about in the first part of this week. Notable is a $25 million piece of Federal Mogul's bank debt that was rumored to be sold by Bank of America to HSBC at 67-68 as the debt level ticks up upon uncertainty regarding a possible Chapter 11 filing. Today, traders were keeping their eye on a $20-30 million piece of Owens-Illinois that was rumored to exchange hands as all asbestos credits are reportedly receiving a little relief as litigation concerns have subsided.

Traders said Finova Group's bank debt this week hit its highest level year-to-date, trading between 94 and 94 1/4 and remaining steady after news was released regarding approval of the company's new reorganization plan. The paper had been trading in the low 90s. "[Finova] traded up a lot on the positive news of the settlement. It takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the credit," said one trader. "We were all waiting to see what happened last Friday," said another. It could not be determined how much of the paper has traded this week.

Deutsche Bank's innovative financing structure for Premcor Refining Group seemed to strike the right note with investors as the deal filled this week and looked to be upsized. A banker familiar with the credit said that total commitments should be $650 million and the revolver will almost certainly be upsized from $350 million. The $150 million term loan will possibly also be increased, depending on the math, said the banker. He was unable to say by how much at this stage or name the institutions committing, as allocations have not yet been set.

Jaap Rademaker, v.p. in the structured transactions group at Deutsche Bank in London, has joined J.P. Morgan in a similar position. Rademaker will report to Bertrand des Pallieres, head of rates marketing and structuring at J.P. Morgan in London. Des Pallieres confirmed the appointment but declined further comment. Rademaker could not be reached.

Sweden-based asset manager SEB Invest plans to launch a market neutral hedge fund in Denmark, which will use interest-rate swaps, forward rate agreements, futures and listed equity options for investing and hedging. The fund will look to execute all its derivatives transactions through a prime broker which it expects to chose in the next couple of weeks, according to Niels Lorentz, institutional client salesman in Copenhagen. The most important criteria for the prime broker is to have a global reach because the fund wants access to the Japanese and U.S. markets.

Japanese corporates have started entering collars in the last month to hedge positions in the sinking Tokyo equity market in preparation for the introduction of mark-to-market accounting in September. "Before they were just buying puts, now they're buying collars," said Jim Clark, head of equity trading at UBS Warburg in Tokyo. He continued that because of low market levels, corporates are nervous and are hedging against further downside with puts. If stocks rise, the calls could be executed, but Clark said corporates are happy to unwind cross holdings at higher than current market levels, because selling the calls partly offsets the cost of buying the puts.

Bankgesellschaft Berlin placed a USD400 million private synthetic collateralized debt obligation last month. Richard Gillingham, head of credit derivatives in London, said the reference portfolio is made up of over 50 credit-default swaps on investment grade corporates in North America and Europe. The companies had an average rating of A minus. Investors bought into the five-year deal through either credit-default swaps or credit-linked notes, according to Gillingham. He declined further comment about the CDO.

J.P. Morgan has hired Stephen Stonberg, former European head of structured credit derivative products at Deutsche Bank in London. Stonberg, who had recently moved internally to take a senior position marketing fixed income products to Deutsche Bank's private banking clients, resigned last week and is expected to take a global position in repackaging and structuring credit at J.P. Morgan, in London, according to a market official. Stonberg and officials at J.P. Morgan declined all comment.

Baltimore-based commercial bank All First, a subsidiary of First Maryland Bancorp, is looking to enter U.S. dollar interest-rate swaps by year-end to hedge the interest-rate exposure on its USD4 billion liability portfolio. The bank has not used derivatives since the beginning of the year because the introduction of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's rule 133 has deterred it and other end users concerned that being required to mark derivatives positions to market will introduce volatility in the earnings statement.

Credit default protection tightened on auto names last week on the back of increased demand for auto paper. "People feel that the auto sector is a safe place to put money," said a credit derivatives trader in New York, adding that auto paper offers relatively high returns for its credit rating. The most actively traded name was General Motors Acceptance Corp, a subsidiary of General Motors Corp. Traders in the U.S. said five-year credit default protection on GMAC came in five basis points from 66bps-71bps last week. A trader noted that while a number of corporates were buying protection, much of the action took place in the interbank market. Traders predicted GMAC will continue to tighten in the coming weeks, and could punch through the 60bps level. One trader estimated USD100-200 million of credit protection on GMAC was bought last week.

Barclays Capital has hired David Hannan, equity derivatives salesman at HSBC in Tokyo, in a similar position. He joined the bank two weeks ago and covers primarily listed options and futures but will also cover over-the-counter equity derivatives for the Japanese and Asian markets. He reports to Alasdair Hodge, Asian head of futures in London. Hodge said the firm is looking to build up its presence in Asia, and will look to expand the sales team.