FICC Focus Bloomberg Intelligence

Chairman Jerome Powell had opportunities at the May FOMC meeting to put interest rate hikes back on the table and surprisingly did not, says Ira Jersey, host and Chief US Interest Rate Strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence. On this Macro Matters edition of the FICC Focus podcast, Jersey is joined by associate US Interest Rate Strategist Will Hoffman to discuss the key takeaways from both the Federal Reserve and US Treasury Department’s May 1 policy announcements. The pair unpack the implications of the announced taper to the pace of Fed balance-sheet runoff, as well as deficit and Treasury-issuance trends over the coming months.

Loose financial conditions are helping to alleviate short-term stability concerns, yet medium-term vulnerabilities are rising as the result of less-optimistic monetary policy expectations. In this month’s EM Lens & Look-Through podcast, Fabio Natalucci, deputy director of monetary and capital markets at the IMF, and Jason Wu, head of the IMF’s Global Markets division, join Bloomberg Intelligence Chief EM Fixed Income Strategist Damian Sassower to share their views on underlying asset valuations amid the recent surge in financial market volatility. Natalucci, Wu and Sassower discuss global monetary policy, central bank divergence, foreign exchange carry, Chinese shadow banks and US private credit.

Inflation is holding stubbornly above the Federal Reserve’s target, throwing expectations for rate cuts into turmoil and playing havoc with housing and mortgage markets. On this Macro Matters edition of the FICC Focus podcast, host and Bloomberg Intelligence Chief US Rates Strategist Ira Jersey is joined by Erica Adelberg, BI’s chief MBS strategist, and Will Hoffman, associate US rates strategist, to discuss the current and future state of the MBS market ahead of the May FOMC meeting. Adelberg breaks down recent trends across the US housing market, as well as year-to-date performance drivers for the MBS sector. She also examines the structural demand implications of continued MBS runoff from the Fed’s balance sheet.

Credit markets sold off in the past month, across the board, on rate-cut delays being priced in globally, led by the Fed. It takes us to an interesting juncture where we ask if this has longer to go or is largely done, and how it affects various asset classes in its aftermath.

In this episode of our Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, Chief European Credit Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, and Raphael Thuin, Head of Capital Markets Strategies at Tikehau Capital, discuss the global situation's effect on inflation and central bank policy, its impact on global credit and the challenges of taking a directional view after the selloff. They discuss rates, yields and credit spreads along with curve flattening, the euro weakness and their impact on credit.

Alternative investments have historically been available only to institutions and ultrahigh-net-worth individuals, but that may be changing. Yieldstreet Chief Investment Officer Ted Yarbrough says democratizing access to alternatives is the company’s mission. He joined Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Noel Hebert and Sam Geier to talk about sourcing deals, leveraging technology and the importance of education when combining illiquid investments with retail clients. Yarbrough also spoke to the disruptive potential of Yieldstreet’s digital-only platform and his long-term outlook for the business. That and more on this episode of Credit Crunch, part of the FICC Focus podcast series.

Part of being an active manager is not only looking for assets that have an edge, are mispriced or are the next hottest thing, but also learning to avoid pitfalls and blind spots when it comes to municipal credit. In this Masters of the Muniverse episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s FICC Focus podcast, Ben Barber, director of municipal bonds at Franklin Templeton, joins BI analysts Eric Kazatsky and Karen Altamirano to discuss municipal active management and best defensive and offensive strategies.