Bondcast - The Rates Podcast

Imogen Bachra shares her take on to watch in the week commencing 5 October. Key takeaways 1. France remains the key source of market risk The French budget process moves forward this week, with debate beginning in Assembly committees before the budget enters Parliament for broader review and debate on 13 October. Markets will be watching closely for signs that political and fiscal risks are becoming more manageable – or, conversely, that pressure on French government bonds could intens...

Imogen Bachra shares her take on to watch in the week commencing 21 September. Fed speakers take centre stage A full slate of Federal Reserve speakers will provide further insight following this week’s more hawkish-than-expected Fed meeting. Markets watch for signs of how closely policymakers’ views align with the latest dot plot and whether the more hawkish tone is broadly shared. NatWest has revised its Fed call and now expects an additional rate hike by the end of 2026, while removin...

The Federal Reserve and Bank of England have both been in focus this week, with the Fed delivering a rate hike and the BoE keeping rates unchanged. In this episode, Imogen Bachra and Stuart Sparks examine what the decisions tell us about the outlook for inflation, interest rates and government bond yields – and why the BoE’s latest quantitative tightening (QT) announcement could have longer-term implications for the gilt market. Key takeaways: * The Fed delivered a hawkish-leaning rate hike...

Imogen Bachra shares her take on to watch in the week commencing 14th of September. * Friday's US inflation data was sufficiently firm that it feels like a 25 basis point hike from the Fed next week looks like the path of least resistance. Our base case is still that this is a one and done move. We still see labour market weakness emerging into 2027, which could ultimately pave the way for rate cuts, but clearly persistently elevated energy prices present an upside risk to this view.&nb...

This week on Bondcast, Imogen Bachra is joined by market specialists Stuart Sparks and Oriane Parmentier to discuss the latest developments across the major central banks and what they could mean for rates markets. Recorded shortly after the ECB’s meeting, the conversation begins with the central bank’s latest 25bp rate hike and the implications of higher inflation and growth projections. The discussion then turns to the Bank of England ahead of next week’s meeting, including the potential fo...