SECURITIES

Merrill Lynch Chief Resigns: The brokerage’s chief of stock and bond sales to institutions, Joseph Petri, was in charge of about 1,000 employees marketing bonds and stocks to Merrill Lynch & Co.’s biggest investors. He joined the firm in 1981 and is leaving to set up a hedge fund with two colleagues. No successor has been named. “I’m leaving for personal and business reasons,” Petri said. “I’ve run global businesses for Merrill for quite a few years.” Petri is setting up the new firm, which hasn’t yet been named, with Matthew Morahan, the former head of junk bonds at Paine Webber Inc., and Steven Geovanis, who left Merrill after running the firm’s foreign exchange group. No successor has been named.