Investors are abandoning the leveraged-loan market

Investors are abandoning the leveraged-loan market just as they have with other assets in the credit markets during times of distress.
In the past week, UBS Securities circulated a list of loans for sale totaling $264.9 million, and Wachovia Securities did the same, for $446 million -- small amounts in the more than half-a-trillion dollar leveraged-loan market, but loaded with meaning for investors who suspect it is a sign subprime-like problems have arrived in corporate debt.
Like mortgage bonds, leveraged loans often were bought and repackaged into securities called collateralized loan obligations.