FICC Focus

"It takes a long time to slow things down, especially when you’ve just pumped $2.5 trillion of monetary stimulus into the economy," Paul Goldschmid, partner & co-portfolio manager at King Street Capital, says about why this credit cycle may take longer to play out vs. those seen in the past 20-30 years.In this State of Distressed Debt edition, Global Credit Strategy head Noel Hebert and BI distressed credit analyst Philip Brendel discuss how credit is hard to keep down in January as well as what’s next, followed by an in-depth feature interview with Goldschmid about distressed markets today and King Street’s investment process (6:15). Negisa Balluku joins the podcast to talk about Johnson & Johnson’s litigation loss in the Third Circuit, Party City and Genesis (1:03:07).

In this edition of the All Options Considered podcast on volatility, BI's Chief Global Derivatives Strategist Tanvir Sandhu discusses the key themes from the volatility markets year-to-date, reflects on the low volatility regime and the outlook ahead.

In this month's EM Lens & Look-Through podcast, BI Chief EM Fixed Income Strategist Damian Sassower is joined by Sergey Goncharov, Emerging Market Portfolio Manager at Vontobel. Goncharov shares his outlook for EM credit, as primary markets are open for business and corporate default rates remain low amid rising risk of recession. Central bank policy rates are well above pre-pandemic levels, and we see potential to receive in EM local debt markets as monetary tightening subsides.

On this month's Masters of the Muniverse, Eric Kazatsky and co-host Karen Altamirano are joined by Stanford University Professor and "Prophet of Remote Work," Nick Bloom. We discuss how remote work has a history much deeper than the pandemic and what the future may look like for the workplace, cities and public transit.

Global Credit Strategy head Noel Hebert and BI distressed credit analyst Philip Brendel discuss distressed debt’s awful 2022 performance and what’s next. Then, Philip and BI bankruptcy litigation analyst Negisa Balluku have an in-depth feature interview with Robert J. Stark, Chair of Brown Rudnick’s Bankruptcy & Corporate Restructuring group on corporate restructuring strategies and dynamics from all angles (8:00). Finally, Eliza Ronalds-Hannon join them for a roundtable discussion on names in the news - FTX, Voyager, Cineworld, Revlon, Bed Bath & Beyond, Party City, and Endo. (1:43:32).Listeners are also invited to join Bloomberg Intelligence Analysts Negisa Balluku and Holly Froum on Jan. 27 at 10:00 AM as they revisit the intersection of mass torts and bankruptcy in light of the evolving legal framework.https://bloomberg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gw4NrtsRTn-GBen_qfxBzgWith key rulings on the horizon, large corporate defendants and lawyers alike are keeping an eye on 3M and Johnson & Johnson’s attempts to short-circuit mass tort litigation via Chapter 11.

CLOs are driving loan supply and in our second Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, Chief European Credit Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, and Paul Mehta, Head of Leveraged Loans at Aberdeen, reflected on how the leveraged loan market fared last year and the outlook for loans in 2023.We discussed our leveraged loan outlook publication covering loan pricing, returns, supply and relative value vs. high yield bonds as well as loan growth vs. the bond market in detail. We also addressed the outlook for CLO issuance and arbitrage for 2023.

Developed market central banks continue to fight inflation, but are at different points in tightening monetary policy. The Federal Reserve and Bank of England may be nearing the end of hiking regimes, while the European Central Bank may be somewhat slower to end tightening, according to Bloomberg Intelligence Interest Rate Strategists. In this Macro Matters edition of the FICC Focus Podcast, Bloomberg Intelligence Chief US Interest Rate Strategist Ira Jersey is joined by Huw Worthington, BI's European Interest Rate Strategist. Worthington reviews his views on how much further the ECB and BoE may increase rates and the affect that may have on government bond yields. He also discusses the different ways central bank balance sheet runoff may increase net issuance of debt - which creates risk for some countries. Italy in particular is a worry for the London based Worthington, with the ECB potentially needing to intervene if spreads widen. The possibility of the Bank of Japan eliminating yield curve control is also discussed. In a new segment of the podcast, “Interest Rate Intro,” US Interest Rate Associate Strategist Will Hoffman asks Jersey about the interaction of central bank Treasury purchases and market pricing.

In our inaugural Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, Bloomberg Intelligence Chief European Credit Strategist and Heema Patel, Credit Strategy Associate, reflected on the scope and impact on credit markets of Quantitative Tightening by the ECB and BOE in 2023. Our positive outlook for credit returns in Europe is in place but the central banks have a key role in deciding if such a view will materialise or not. This podcast aims to give an idea of the size and monthly pace of such quantitative tightening by the ECB and BOE and what can cause the markets to spook.

Quantitative modeling is an ever growing component of financial analysis, with most investors using some form of it within their investment processes.In this Macro Matters edition of the FICC Focus Podcast, Bloomberg Intelligence Chief US Interest Rate Strategist Ira Jersey is joined by Vera Tian and Alex Montiel, Bloomberg Data Scientists working with the BI FICC research team. Tian discusses how she developed the BI Rates model for two-year inflation swaps and the work she’s doing on equity-derivative markets. Her work allows investors to determine how much the market is long or short gamma, giving a clue to potential market moves. Montiel describes the process for building the BI Rates Federal Reserve sentiment model and iterations thereof. He and Jersey note that data availability are important. Montiel also previews a fair-value model of the Treasury yield curve.In a new segment of the podcast, “Interest Rate Intro,” US Interest Rate Associate Strategist Will Hoffman asks Jersey about the repurchase agreement market — what is it, how does it work and why is it important?

In our latest FX Moment podcast, host Audrey Childe-Freeman, Bloomberg Intelligence chief G-10 FX strategist, Chief Asia FX and rates strategist Stephen Chiu and EMEA EM FX and Rates Strategist Sergei Voloboev reflect on the outlook for global currencies as we start 2023 and more specifically, on the extent to which the late 4Q 2022 dollar sell-off affects their 2023 currency outlooks, if at all. They also contemplate some relevant FX views and themes outside the dollar box for this year.Our analysts' 2023 dollar bearish narrative is intact, but this can't be a linear view and a temporary risk-off return - that could could be triggered by a wide range of drivers including a shift back to more hawkish Fed expectations, earnings disappointment and/or geopolitical jitters, China macro concerns - could revive the US dollar in 1Q.