FICC Focus

Event risk will garner greater attention as the emerging-market election calendar heats up in May. In this month’s EM Lens & Look-Through podcast, Wells Fargo Global Macro Strategist, FX & Emerging Markets Aroop Chatterjee joins Damian Sassower, Bloomberg Intelligence chief EM credit strategist, to share his views on funding currency diversification as the EM carry trade remains alive and well. Ch...

Philosophy, process, people and performance — that’s what Jim Fellows, co-president and CIO of First Eagle Alternative Credit, says underpins FEAC’s investment approach. Fellows joins hosts Noel Hebert and Sam Geier, Bloomberg Intelligence credit analysts, on this episode of Credit Crunch to talk through the value of culture, the evolution in direct lending, leveraged loans and CLOs, and why he wa...

I think the Fed is extremely data dependent, if anything, too data dependent, says Anna Wong, chief US economist for Bloomberg Economics. In this Macro Matters edition of the FICC focus podcast, Wong joins host Ira Jersey, chief US interest rate strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence, to unpack the March FOMC meeting. The pair discuss the surprises and developments from the meeting, including revis...

Municipals are starting the year semi-flat, and the latest read on consumer prices won’t do much to alleviate the concern of market participants that performance could be stagnant for the foreseeable future. At the same time, there are still some areas of relative value, even though the absolute tradeoff from late 2023 has faded to a large degree. In the latest Masters of the Muniverse episode of ...

Credit markets had a strong six months of rally, particularly in spreads, although not necessarily in yields. Are credit spreads too tight, and is that supported by low defaults? Is that rally justified on expected rate cuts? In this episode of our Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, Chief European Credit Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, and Marina Cohen, Head of European High Yie...

The distressed cycle is on the upswing as rates pinch post-pandemic borrowers, in the eyes of William ‘Tuck’ Hardie, Managing Director in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group (3:30). He joined the State of Distressed Debt podcast team to talk liability management transactions, where we are in the cycle, and why the involvement of private credit and CLO investors may mean more persistent...

The Federal Reserve is restrictive, and policymakers left themselves room to cut on the way up, says Greg Faranello, head of US rates at AmeriVet Securities. In this Macro Matters edition of the Bloomberg Intelligence FICC Focus podcast, Faranello joins hosts Ira Jersey, BI chief US rates strategist, and Will Hoffman, US rates strategy associate, to discuss the state of the Treasury market. The tr...

In the latest FX Moment podcast, host Audrey Childe-Freeman, Bloomberg Intelligence's chief G10 FX strategist, talks about the Swiss economy, the SNB's outlook and prospects for the franc with Valerie Lemaigre, head of Investment Office and chief economist at Banque Cantonale de Geneve. In particular, Valerie and Audrey explore how the outlook for Swiss growth and inflation may sway SNB near-term...

MBS demand from banks and international buyers is seen as weakening in the near term as expectations for the US Federal Reserve’s first rate cut and a taper in the pace of quantitative tightening is being pushed further into 2024, says Nick Maciunas, head of agency MBS research at JP Morgan Securities. In this Macro Matters edition of the Bloomberg Intelligence FICC Focus podcast, Maciunas joins h...

For a market notoriously known for resisting change, the municipal bond market is arguably one of the most in need of advanced technologies. Artificial intelligence may finally bring better fair value pricing to munis’ nuanced and illiquid market. In the latest Masters of the Muniverse episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s FICC Focus podcast, Eric Kazatsky and Karen Altamirano are joined by ficc.ai’...

Emerging market carry should continue to outperform, as the fall in foreign exchange volatility reflects capitulation by dollar bulls. In this month’s EM Lens & Look-Through edition of Bloomberg Intelligence’s FICC Focus podcast, Phoenix Kalen, Head of EM Research at Société Générale, joins Damian Sassower, Bloomberg Intelligence chief EM fixed income strategist, to share her view on valuations an...

Systematic credit investors seek to capitalize on mispricings that can be overlooked or hard to identify in more traditional investment strategies. Scott Richardson, director of Systematic Credit at Acadian Asset Management, has been at the forefront of the approach and joins Bloomberg Intelligence podcast hosts Noel Hebert and Sam Geier on this episode of Credit Crunch to talk through they keys t...

In this edition of the All Options Considered podcast, BI's Chief Global Derivatives Strategist Tanvir Sandhu is joined by Catherine Clay, Global Head of Derivatives at Cboe. They discuss zero-days-to-expiry options (0DTEs), cross-asset volatility and potential for options on Bitcoin ETFs.

Seth Carpenter, chief global economist at Morgan Stanley, expects the Federal Reserve to taper its balance-sheet policy in May and to begin easing interest rates in June. Carpenter joins hosts Ira Jersey and Will Hoffman of the Bloomberg Intelligence interest rate strategy team to give his views on economies and markets in this Macro Matters edition of the BI FICC Focus podcast. The trio discuss o...

High yield had a great 2023 in both US and Europe, due to a strong 4Q rally in rates and spreads. In Europe, the index default rate stands at 0.8% and the proportion of stressed and distressed bonds is under control, while it's higher in the US. Will 1Q sustain the 4Q gains, and will we see defaults pick up? Listen to Mahesh Bhimalingam, Bloomberg Intelligence's Chief European Credit Strategist, d...

Sticky high rates have put an elevated floor under distressed supply. That’s the first topic Noel Hebert, Bloomberg Intelligence’s head of global credit strategy, and Philip Brendel, BI distressed credit analyst, discuss in this month’s State of Distressed Debt edition of the FICC Focus podcast. Then, BI bankruptcy litigation analyst Negisa Balluku and Phil interview Abid Qureshi, a partner in Aki...

Credit-risk sharing structures have undergone a significant evolution since the financial crisis, leading us to explore its emergence in markets and transformative impact on modern risk-management strategies. Man Group’s co-head of credit risk sharing, Matthew Moniot, joined Bloomberg Intelligence’s Noel Hebert and Sam Geier on this episode of Credit Crunch, part of the FICC Focus podcast. The con...

In our latest FX Moment podcast, host Audrey Childe-Freeman, Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) chief G-10 FX strategist, discusses the dollar's prospects in the wake of recent US macro news flow with Brad Bechtel, global head of FX sales and trading at Jefferies LLC. Brad and Audrey look at how the unexpectedly strong turn in US data has revived broad dollar strength, consistent with Brad's base case. Y...

The risk of inflation re-accelerating is really in the last three months of 2024, says Anna Wong, chief US economist at Bloomberg Economics. In this episode of the Macro Matters podcast, Wong joins host and Chief US Interest Rate Strategist Ira Jersey to discuss details of the January FOMC meeting, including implications for the path of monetary policy and any potential easing this year. The pair...

With the election year well on its way, peak partisanship and geopolitical volatility may mean increased risk for municipal bond markets. Though past election years have returned more wins than losses for munis, macro issues will continue to be a hurdle. To discuss these possible threats and the latest federal income-tax developments, we have Bloomberg Intelligence’s tax policy expert, Andrew Silv...

Blue Owl has grown from a few ideas to an alternatives manager with over $150 billion in assets under management, including almost $80 billion in credit. Craig Packer, co-president and head of credit for Blue Owl, joined Bloomberg Intelligence’s Noel Hebert and Sam Geier on the latest episode of Credit Crunch to talk about the evolution of the company, the direct lending market, why the asset clas...

“In the 12 months following a rate hiking cycle, typically, going out duration has a really strong potential return,” says Bobby Martin, Co-Head of Fixed Income Investment Specialists at UBS Asset Management. Martin joins Macro Matters host and BI chief US rates strategist Ira Jerseyto review the state of domestic and global fixed-income markets. The pair discuss the stronger-than-expected macroec...

In this edition of the All Options Considered podcast, BI's chief global derivatives strategist Tanvir Sandhu is joined by Nancy Davis, founder of Quadratic Capital Management. They discuss the key themes in the options market amid the focus on the easing cycle this year.

Global rate cuts seem certain, but the timing is less so. In this episode of the Macro Matters edition of the FICC Focus podcast, host Ira Jersey, Bloomberg Intelligence’s chief US interest rate strategist is joined by colleague Huw Worthington, chief European rate strategist, to preview the themes and research found within their recently published deep dive on the G3+ rates markets. The report fe...

CLOs are driving loan supply and in this Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, Bloomberg Intelligence Chief European Credit Strategist and Paul Mehta, Head of Leveraged Loans at Aberdeen, reflect on how the leveraged loan market fared last year and the outlook for loans in 2024. They discuss BI's leveraged loan outlook publication covering loan pricing, returns, supply and relative value...