Claim OwnershipFICC Focus
Subscribed: 160Played: 9,091
Subscribe
© 628159
Description
FICC Focus offers the latest market views on interest rates, corporate bonds, emerging market debt, commodities, and currencies by Bloomberg Intelligence analysts.
523 Episodes
Reverse
The yield curve may continue its steepening trend, with recent flattening just a cyclical retracement, Jason Granet, CIO of BNY says on this Macro Matter’s episode of the FICC Focus podcast series. Granet joins co-hosts Ira Jersey and Will Hoffman of the Bloomberg Intelligence US Interest-Rate Strategy team to discuss the state of the economy, how BNY assesses the outlook and how it thinks about sizing risk. The focus turns to Federal Reserve policy, the Treasury yield curve and funding markets.
The Macro Matters podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series.
Credit suffered a software loan wobble and private credit contagion before the war in Iran, but it’s been a safe haven vs. rates and equities since hostilities started. In this Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, global head of credit strategy at Bloomberg Intelligence and Sarah Harrison, senior portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, discuss their prognosis on the war, reflect on how various credit classes fared during the technology supply wave and software wobble and then contrast credit performance with rates and equities since the Iran war began. They also discuss supply and relative value across high grade, high yield and loan markets, along with the road ahead amid this volatility.
The Credit Crunch podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
“The goal is to set the company up for longer-term success,” explained Rachel Murray, managing director at Moelis & Co. “If we’re solving quarter-to-quarter, you’re probably not investing in the business as you should; there’s distractions for management, it’s putting more pressure on the business, and frankly, probably their peers and competitors are going after their customers and creating noise.” In her conversation (7:40) with Bloomberg Intelligence’s Negisa Balluku and Phil Brendel at the 22nd annual Wharton Restructuring & Distressed Investing Conference, Murray explored how private credit’s growth and heavy dependence on relationships alter the restructuring dynamic, relative to traditional large cap leveraged finance workouts. This episode of the State of Distressed Debt podcast concludes (31:40) with BI’s Noel Hebert joining Negisa and Phil to discuss the latest developments in First Brands, Saks, Multi-Color Corp., Ardagh Group and Serta.
Prediction markets may revolutionize the municipal bond industry by improving credit transparency, trading efficiencies, hedging strategies and portfolio management. On the inaugural episode of the Masters of the Muniverse podcast, MMA founder Tom Doe and Bloomberg Intelligence’s new head of municipal research and strategy, Matthew Gastall, discuss the possibilities and promise of prediction markets. They also explore potential policy actions in regions exposed to the greatest infrastructure and energy risks.
The Masters of the Muniverse podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series.
It’s surprising that the Basel III Endgame proposal may raise bank capital requirements 3-7% given that President Donald Trump’s mantra is deregulation, says Nathan Dean, Bloomberg Intelligence senior policy analyst. Dean joins host Ira Jersey, BI’s chief US rates strategist, to discuss the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s stablecoin proposal implementing the Genius Act, along with open questions around rewards, yield and the Clarity Act. They also discuss the state of the Basel III endgame and related proposals that could reshape global systemically important bank capital through 2027, how tariff authority is shifting after a Supreme Court ruling — and why litigation may be the next battleground — and what the November midterms could mean for legislative gridlock, investigations and policy path dependence. There’s also a quick detour to Ira’s World Cup picks.
The Macro Matters podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series.
As conflict escalates across the Middle East, the dominant frameworks for reading Iran, its system, its strategy, and its staying power are widely misunderstood.BI's Chief Global Derivatives Strategist Tanvir Sandhu is joined by Professor Anoush Ehteshami, International Relations in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University, to examine the geopolitical backdrop and its transmission into financial markets. The podcast is moderated by Karima Fenaoui, BI's Research Content Officer.
The Iran war challenges Bloomberg Intelligence’s early 2026 dollar bear view via two key channels. First, the large-scale risk-off move over the past few sessions has revived the dollar’s safe-haven appeal, reinforcing that in a broad-based flight-to-safety backdrop the greenback comes out stronger. Second, if the recent oil-price surge persists, it could lift global inflation and force markets to rethink expected 2H Fed rate cuts, weakening the yield-driven case for a softer dollar.
In this episode of FX Moment, Bloomberg Intelligence Chief FX Strategist Audrey Childe-Freeman and BI’s Chief Asia FX and Rates Strategist Stephen Chiu discuss how higher oil prices can also support the dollar vs. the euro or yen through the net oil exporter vs. net oil importer dynamic. They also revisit BI’s strong Asia FX convictions from early 2026, including a still-supportive yuan outlook.
“You can still find some attractive value within the front end of the securitized curve,” says Income Research + Management’s Co-Chief Investment Officer Jim Gubitosi, when discussing the relative value within US spread assets. Gubitosi joins Bloomberg Intelligence’s Noel Hebert on the latest episode of Credit Crunch to talk about the scaling of assets and strategies at IR+M, an active approach to security selection, the current credit climate for corporates and structured debt, and how market technicals may be contributing to recent resilience.
The cadence of announcements about housing affordability and deregulation may accelerate into the midterm elections in November, Bloomberg Intelligence chief MBS strategist Erica Adelberg says. On this Macro Matters episode of the FICC Focus podcast series, Adelberg joins host Ira Jersey, BI’s chief US rates strategist, to discuss key takeaways from the Structured Finance Association’s conference held Feb. 22-25 in Las Vegas. They explore GSE reforms, regulatory changes, shifts in credit scoring used while processing mortgage applications and the use of AI in the mortgage process. They also cover the talk around the health of the economy and why few expect a recession in the foreseeable future.
The Macro Matters podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series.
Global credit markets are tight, and strategic insights are essential for performance. In this episode of the Credit Crunch podcast, Mahesh Bhimalingam, Bloomberg Intelligence’s global head of credit strategy, hosts BI’s global credit strategy team to highlight worldwide research, data and views. Tim Tan and Jason Lee (Asia), Basel Al-Waqayan (Middle East), Reto Bachmann (structured credit), Heema Patel (Europe) and Sam Geier (US) share takeaways on their recent research, relative value and major themes shaping their regions. Access their research on the Bloomberg Terminal at BI STRTA, BI STRTE, BI STRTN and BI EMFIG.
Emerging market fixed income is off to another strong start in 2026, with scope for further upside as long as the dollar cooperates and cross-asset volatility remains low. Christian Lawrence, chief cross-asset strategist at Cooperative Rabobank, joins Damian Sassower, Bloomberg Intelligence’s chief EM fixed income strategist, to discuss investor positioning, currency hedging and event risk. They discuss drivers of institutional demand, including yield differentials, terms of trade, artificial intelligence and geopolitical developments.
News from the labor market and on the inflation front has been consistent with a fairly low-volatility environment, says Will Marshall, Goldman Sachs head of US Rates Strategy. On this Macro Matters episode of the FICC Focus podcast series, Marshall joins host Ira Jersey, BI’s chief US rates strategist, to discuss rate volatility’s move lower, expectations for the Federal Reserve’s monetary and balance sheet policy, the Treasury yield curve and the relationship of swap spreads and Treasury yields. They also examine Goldman’s outlook for Treasury supply.
The Macro Matters podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series.
"Helping... investors to really understand what they could get in these markets is helpful because I think it is where our economy is moving, and we all want to be able to benefit from that growth," says Wellington's Director of Private Credit Emily Bannister, when discussing the shift to privately owned companies. Bannister joins Bloomberg Intelligence’s Noel Hebert on the latest episode of Credit Crunch to talk about public-private convergence, leveraging Wellington's deep public market history, transitional real estate and growth equity. The two also touch on private credit in oil infrastructure, and positioning the business for growth.
Credit and high yield had a good 2025 despite tariffs and rate volatility, as spreads held their ground. Will 1Q sustain this resilience, and why? Mahesh Bhimalingam, Bloomberg Intelligence global head of credit strategy, discusses the results of the BI 1Q26 Investor Survey and the market outlook with Ashwin Palta, global high yield PM at BNY Investments Newton. They discuss tight spreads, Fed actions and impending US tech sector supply into Europe, along with distress and default rates. This podcast also covers survey results on investor positioning, sentiment, key return drivers, supply forecasts and relative value across asset classes (high grade vs. junk), geography (Europe vs. US), ratings and sectors.
The G-10 FX narrative has mainly been dollar- and structurally driven year-to-date, while euro headlines have been sidelined. This could change into 2H as European fiscal stimulus starts to lift the region’s economic narrative and validates the ECB-driven relative yield advantage into 2H. In this episode of FX Moment, Bloomberg Intelligence Chief FX Strategist Audrey Childe-Freeman and Constantin Bolz, Head of G-10 FX for UBS’s Chief Investment Office, focus on the euro side of the bullish euro-dollar view and how a cautiously optimistic euro macro narrative can be consistent with a euro-dollar break of $1.20. They also present their strongest G-10 FX convictions for the year — on pro-cyclical currencies including the Aussie dollar and the Norwegian krone — and touch on expected Swiss franc and yen fortunes for 2026.
“It is the inconsistency of decisions which oftentimes bedevils a company’s ultimate success. You create that consistency. You can also push decisioning down from the C-suite into the next operating level. That creates dynamism and speed in decision-making. Speed in decision-making creates faster turns in the capital in the business,” says Andrew Milgram, managing partner and chief investment officer of Marblegate Asset Management. Milgram discusses how his firm works with portfolio companies to improve processes for better operational outcomes in this episode of the State of Distressed Debt podcast. In his hour-plus conversation with Bloomberg Intelligence’s Noel Hebert and Phil Brendel, Milgram shares his perspective on how Marblegate’s direct-investing approach and focus on the middle market de-emphasizes the credit cycle. He also discusses First Brands Group, liability management exercises and his outlook for 2026. The podcast concludes with BI’s Negisa Balluku joining to break down the latest legal developments at First Brands and Serta, followed by a discussion with Brendel and Hebert around Saks’ DIP battle with Amazon and Axonic.
“Hybrid is the ultimate in creative solutions,” says Apollo’s co-head of equity and head of hybrid, Matt Nord, when discussing the firm’s fast-growing hybrid strategy and the types of solutions that may allow it to triple in scale over the coming years. Nord joins Bloomberg Intelligence’s Noel Hebert on the latest episode of Credit Crunch to talk about controlling for downside, the benefits of scale and why the lack of realizations across private equity is creating a need for more tailored funding solutions. The two also discuss Apollo’s investment ethos, including its value orientation and pursuit of “excess return per unit of risk.”
The Credit Crunch podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series.
The Japanese bond market has experienced significant volatility and increased currency intervention risks this year. Ahead of the snap election in which the prime minister is seeking a renewed mandate, this edition of the All Options Considered podcast features BI's Chief Global Derivatives Strategist Tanvir Sandhu in conversation with Kristi Govella, Associate Professor of Japanese Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. They discuss Japanese politics, the fiscal outlook and implications for the market.
Housing affordability challenges are a feature, not a bug, Bloomberg Intelligence chief MBS strategist Erica Adelberg says. On this episode of the Macro Matters podcast, Adelberg joins host Ira Jersey, BI’s chief US rates strategist, to discuss Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buying $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities, recent proposals aimed at improving affordability for first-time home buyers and shifts in her views on relative value in the MBS market. Adelberg notes that efforts by the Federal Reserve or US government to address housing affordability could raise longer-term risks.
“There’s no binary differentiation between capital solutions and restructuring anymore,” says Lazard’s co-head of Europe Restructuring and Liability Management, Sam Whittaker, when discussing the continuum of solutions available to debtors under stress. Whittaker and Lazard’s co-head of European Debt Advisory and Capital Solutions, Tom Howard, joined Bloomberg Intelligence’s Noel Hebert on the latest episode of the Credit Crunch podcast to discuss the current stressed and distressed landscape in Europe, sectors of concern, the evolution of balance-sheet solutions and documentation flexibility. The Credit Crunch podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series.
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States