Merrill Launches CMO Index

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. has launched an index series for agency collateralized mortgage obligations designed to track the performance of the asset class."The Merrill Lynch U.S. Agency CMO Index is the first to tackle this large, complex asset class," said Phil Galdi, managing director of the firm's global bond index and analytics group. The index series' data sets of returns and risk characteristics are available back to December 1996.