FICC Focus

Market downswings and rallies and concern about the next crisis have been major preoccupations over the past two years. A significant credit-market innovation helping to address this was introduced in this period and it's coming to the forefront now -- credit index futures.In the ninth episode of our Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, Chief European Credit Strategist and Davide Masi, Fixed Income ETD Product Design at Eurex, discuss the need for credit index futures, the features of the Investment Grade (LXY) and High Yield (AHW) futures contracts along with their underlying benchmarks, their merits for hedging and risk-taking and their potential in terms of trading costs and volume.

“I worry less about liquidity risk because we’re generally assuming there isn’t liquidity there. I worry more about recovery risk. If something goes wrong in a small-cap stack…a lot of the advisory, workout and bankruptcy costs are much more onerous in a smaller-cap stack,” Corbin Capital’s Chief Investment Officer Craig Bergstrom says on this month’s State of Distressed edition of the FICC Focus Podcast.In this episode, Bloomberg Intelligence global credit strategy head Noel Hebert and distressed credit analyst Philip Brendel discuss how the credit markets are locked in to their seasonal trends, and if continued, may tumble this summer. Then, they have an in-depth feature interview with Bergstrom on the current credit opportunity set, private credit and evaluating credit funds (7:39). Bankruptcy litigation analyst Negisa Balluku joins the podcast for a roundtable discussion of distressed topics, including Bed Bath & Beyond, National CineMedia, Johnson & Johnson’s second foray in Chapter 11 and Exela Technologies (1:06:20).

ING’s Antoine Bouvet, head of European rates strategy and James Smith, developed market economist, join Bloomberg Intelligence’s Chief US Rates Strategist Ira Jersey on this episode of the Macro Matters editions of the FICC Focus podcast to discuss the economy and rate markets of the Eurozone and the UK. Bouvet and Smith give their outlook for inflation, central bank policy and government bond markets.

In our latest FX Moment podcast, host Audrey Childe-Freeman, Bloomberg Intelligence chief G-10 FX strategist, discusses her still-positive sterling outlook and revisits the UK's near-term cyclical dynamics and longer-term structural considerations with Dan Hanson, senior UK economist at Bloomberg Economics. The pair acknowledge the better-than-expected backdrop that's helped sterling year to date and discuss the risks to the UK's economic outlook, with implications for monetary policy and the pound. Hanson also explains the main longer-term challenges facing the UK economy, in particular regarding productivity and fiscal considerations.Beyond unexpected economic resilience thus far this year, there are other reasons supporting a more upbeat pound outlook, including improving post-Brexit UK-EU relations.

In this edition of the All Options Considered podcast on volatility, BI's Chief Global Derivatives Strategist Tanvir Sandhu is joined by Matthew Tym, Head of Equity Derivatives Trading at Cantor Fitzgerald. Discussion includes the volatility reset in G10 FX and equity market.

Municipal performance through the first four months of 2023 is a semi-welcome respite from the tough 2022 that many asset managers faced. The tax-exempt market is still contending with the same challenges that somewhat define the sector such as supply and demand imbalances and municipal valuations that seem overly rich until they unwind in the other direction. Though sole exempt investors are strapped in and along for the ride, those who live in the crossover world can maneuver more adeptly around “relative value.” Wesly Pate, a senior portfolio manager at Income Research & Management joins Bloomberg Intelligence Strategist Eric Kazatsky on this Masters of the Muniverse podcast episode to explain how a true cross-over investor is looking at munis’ potential opportunities.

European high yield had its first default but the proportion of stressed and distressed bonds is under control after a positive first quarter for returns. Will 2Q sustain the 1Q gains and when do we see a default wave, if any? Please join Mahesh Bhimalingam, Chief European Credit Strategist, Bloomberg Intelligence as he discussed the results of the 2Q23 High Yield Survey and comment on the market outlook and trends in a Q&A format with George Flynn, Head of Credit at Wisealpha Technologies.We discussed our 2Q23 survey publication covering investor positioning, sentiment, key return drivers, default and supply forecasts and relative value opinions by geography, rating and sectors in detail.

Deteriorating US economic fundamentals are fueling late-cycle serendipity in emerging market currencies, yet any declarations alluding to a demise in the dollar smile will likely prove exaggerated. In this month’s EM Lens & Look-Through podcast, Jonny Goulden, managing director and head of EM sovereign strategy at JPMorgan joins Bloomberg Intelligence Chief EM Fixed Income Strategist Damian Sassower to share his views on EM foreign exchange resilience, the glide path for short-term interest rates and spillover from US financial sector stress to EM credit spreads.

Bank debt may be an attractive asset class, NewEdge Wealth’s portfolio manager and head of fixed income Ben Emons tells Bloomberg Intelligence Chief US Interest Rate Strategist and host Ira Jersey on this Macro Matters edition of the FICC Focus podcast. Emons discusses his views on future central-bank policy action in the US, Europe and emerging markets. He also reviews how the yield curve could react, highlighting that EM was early in tightening monetary policy. Jersey asks Emons about the challenges of investing in private credit and how loan markets are being altered by the transition to SOFR away from Libor.In the Interest Rate Intro segment, US Rate Strategy Associate Will Hoffman asks Jersey what could happen after the debt ceiling raised, and how the Treasury Department may refill government coffers.

The banking crisis on both sides of the Atlantic has led to significant repricing and revaluation of certain instruments in credit markets. But the rally following government and regulatory actions has recovered some of the lost ground.In our seventh episode of the Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, Chief European Credit Strategist and Noel Hebert, Chief US Credit Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, discuss the banking crisis aftermath, performance of banking bonds including AT1s and CDS indexes and the outlook for credit markets on both sides of the Atlantic including fundamentals, central bank actions, yield curve impacts and return forecasts.