Barclays Brief

As investors reassess the AI trade, attention is shifting towards how the next phase of the cycle could play out across Asia. The region remains central to global AI investment, but changing sentiment is creating a more complex mix of opportunities and risks. Recorded at the Barclays Asia Forum in Singapore, host Patrick Coffey was joined by JF Mastrangelo, Head of Markets, APAC, to discuss distin...

The US consumer has proved to be more resilient than expected, supported by a constructive employment backdrop, income growth and rising household wealth. But beneath that aggregate strength, behaviour is shifting. Consumers are becoming more selective, and their ability to absorb further inflation is becoming increasingly divided by income. In this episode of the Barclays Brief, host Ronnie Wexle...

Ahead of the UK Autumn Budget, the consensus view is that higher borrowing costs and a weaker fiscal backdrop have left the Chancellor of the Exchequer with little room to manoeuvre. But what if markets are focusing on the wrong part of the story? In this episode of the Barclays Brief, host Patrick Coffey sits down with Jack Meaning, Chief UK Economist at Barclays, to examine why expectations of a...

French government bonds, or OATs, are under growing pressure. While rising yields reflect a broader sell-off across European markets, concerns over France’s fiscal trajectory and political uncertainty are driving an additional risk premium. In this episode of Barclays Brief, host Patrick Coffey is joined by Rohan Khanna, Head of European Rates Strategy, to examine why investors are demanding great...

Markets have spent much of 2026 confronting higher bond yields, tighter central bank policy and elevated oil prices. By historical standards, that should have been enough to derail growth. Instead, markets and the global economy have continued to surprise to the upside. In this episode of Barclays Brief, host Ronnie Wexler is joined by Ajay Rajadhyaksha, Global Chairman of Research, to discuss the...

The recent summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping brought greater stability to US-China relations, but little substantive resolution. Continued dialogue and an extension of the trade truce offer grounds for optimism, however major questions around trade, geopolitics and AI remain unresolved. In this episode of Barclays Brief, host Patrick Coffey is joined by Mitul Kotecha, Head of F...

As AI models become increasingly capable, questions around safety and oversight are growing. Recent cybersecurity incidents have intensified the debate over whether frontier AI development needs to slow down, or "pace," while labs introduce stronger guardrails. ​ ​In this episode of Barclays Brief, host Ronnie Wexler speaks with Senior Internet Research Analyst Ross Sandler about what pacing could...

Markets began 2026 expecting interest rate cuts. Instead, investors have faced a sharp repricing in bond markets, with the US 10-year Treasury yield reaching 5% and growing debate around whether policy may need to remain restrictive for longer. In this episode of Barclays Brief, host Patrick Coffey speaks with Dan Orlando, Head of US Rates Trading, about one of the most important questions facing...

Markets are fixating on the billions being invested in AI. But a second massive investment story related to energy is emerging and investors need to pay attention. In this episode of Barclays Brief, host Patrick Coffey speaks with Harry Mateer, Head of Americas FICC Research at Barclays, about why energy could become one of the defining macro themes of the coming decade. As energy security concern...

European equities have been one of the standout market stories of the year. Despite trade tensions, geopolitical uncertainty and persistent questions about growth, the region has delivered unexpectedly strong equity performance, challenging assumptions about where investors can find opportunity. In this episode of Barclays Brief, host Patrick Coffey speaks to Emmanuel Cau, Head of European & A...

Nuclear fusion has long been viewed as a transformational energy breakthrough, capable of delivering abundant, zero-carbon at operation energy by recreating the same reaction that powers the sun. Recently, a series of scientific milestones, rising electricity demands and the global competition for energy have moved the conversation from theoretical possibility towards commercial reality.​ In this...

Little more than a week ago, a rare, coordinated US-Japan intervention to support the yen caught investors’ attention. Coupled with rising expectations of another Bank of Japan (BoJ) rate hike and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's expansionary fiscal agenda, the country appears to be undergoing a profound transition, bringing new questions for investors around the world. In this episode of the Barcl...

After a spring sell-off and renewed summer weakness in technology stocks, uncertainty has remained a defining feature of the investment landscape. During the market sell-off following the start of the US-Iran conflict, Venu Krishna, Head of U.S. Equity and Equity Linked Strategy, challenged the subdued market narrative with his end-of-year expectations for the S&P 500. Several months on, with...

The AI buildout is fuelling a wave of new credit supply, and the sheer volume of debt is starting to test the market's capacity to absorb it. Year-to-date, the AI ecosystem has accounted for roughly 20% of all US corporate bond issuance, and the six hyperscalers are now bigger than the big six banks in some key measures. ​ In this episode of Barclays Brief , Ronnie Wexler, Global Head of Equities...

Markets can become crowded around consensus views. In this episode of the Barclays Brief, Patrick Coffey is joined by Brian Kuritzky from our Rates Sales team to explore potential investor complacency, from expectations for the Fed to the way political risk is being priced.​ The conversation focuses on three ideas Kuritzky believes deserve more attention: the risks around energy and inflation expe...

Power constraints have dominated the conversation around AI infrastructure, but the buildout is facing a broader convergence of execution risks. Cooling, water use, permitting, labour shortages and growing local opposition are emerging as critical factors that could affect where and how quickly new data centres are built.​ In this episode of Barclays Brief, Ronnie Wexler, Global Head of Equities D...

Investor positioning across Asian equities is shifting, with opportunities increasingly driven by market-specific factors rather than a single regional or thematic narrative. In this episode of Barclays Brief, Patrick Coffey is joined by Kaan Singh, Head of APAC Barclays Equities Tactical Strategies and Flow Equity Derivatives, to dive in to where investors are putting money to work in Asia and wh...

Ten years after the Brexit referendum, many studies assess the effects on the UK economy as negative, pointing to weaker growth, lower investment and a tighter fiscal backdrop as its legacy. But the focus now is forward-looking. After Andy Burnham set out his 10-year economic vision centred on devolving more power to Britain’s cities and regions, the debate is shifting from what Brexit changed to...

The World Cup has kicked off across North America in its largest and most geographically dispersed format yet. This year, the tournament expands to 48 teams (up from 32 in 2022), 104 matches (vs. 64) and 16 host cities across the US, Canada and Mexico. The scale is set to drive a surge of visitors, viewership and national pride, but the economic payoff may be short-lived.​ ​In this episode of Barc...

Consumer health is undergoing a structural shift, moving beyond traditional treatment and becoming embedded in everyday spending. Where consumers were once focused on curing illness, they are increasingly aiming for prevention, with demand extending across categories from supplements and sports nutrition to oral health and functional foods.​ ​In this episode of the Barclays Brief, Patrick Coffey i...

US equities have delivered strong gains year-to-date, despite a challenging macro backdrop, but that momentum is beginning to look less secure. While fundamentals remain supportive, the near‑term setup is becoming more stretched.​ In this episode of Barclays Brief, Patrick Coffey is joined by Alex Altman, Head of Equity Tactical Strategies in our Markets division, to break down his shift to a shor...

The path for US interest rates has shifted sharply in recent months, as markets move from pricing rate cuts to pricing a potential hike. In this episode, Ronnie Wexler sits down with Barclays’ Chief US Economist Marc Giannoni to look at what’s driving that shift. At the centre of the discussion is inflation. While headline inflation has been pushed higher by rising energy prices driven by the Iran...

Productivity growth has been uneven across many sectors and economies. But AI in the form of humanoid robotics could change that, extending automation into physical services at scale. In this episode of Barclays Brief, Patrick Coffey is joined by Christian Keller, Head of Economics Research, to discuss what this shift could mean for productivity and the wider macro outlook. Keller explains that wh...

Global bond yields have been rising sharply, with long-term yields breaking higher across multiple markets - pushing US 30‑year yields above 5%.​ The sell-off was initially triggered by energy-linked inflation resulting from the Iran war, but increasingly reflects a broader, cross‑market re-pricing, with fiscal pressures, shifting rate expectations and signs of bear‑flattening emerging in key mark...

Markets are facing two competing inflation stories at the same time: a near‑term energy shock pushing inflation risks higher, and the possibility that AI acts as a medium to longer-run disinflationary force.​ In this episode of Barclays Brief, Patrick Coffey, Global Head of the Product Management, sits down with Jon Hill, Head of US Inflation Strategy, to break down how energy price spikes feed in...