FICC Focus Bloomberg Intelligence

Investigations into debtors’ pre-bankruptcy machinations are evolving toward a “consensus model” where committees of independent directors are cooperating with unsecured committees, according to Julia Winters, a partner in Katten’s commercial litigation practice. She shared her perspective on corporate governance amid financial turmoil, when Chapter 11 examiners make sense and the critical role indenture trustees play with Bloomberg Intelligence’s Negisa Balluku and Phil Brendel. Prior to that, Phil and Noel Hebert of BI discuss how the uncertain, higher-rate environment is whipping corporate credit spreads around. The podcast concludes with the BI Podcast team tackling the latest developments in bankruptcy courts and distressed situations, including J&J, WeWork, Ardagh Group, Yellow, Diamond Sports, Spirit Airlines, 99 Cents Only Stores and Express.

The challenges of unilateral FX intervention by the Bank of Japan may mean that a confirmed dovish Fed adjustment and/or a step-up in the BOJ tightening cycle remain the best path to address the cost-of-carry yen conundrum and take dollar-yen lower in the process, according to the latest FX Moment podcast. Host Audrey Childe-Freeman, Bloomberg Intelligence's chief G-10 FX strategist, talks to Chris Gaffney, World Markets president at EverBank, about whether it could be time to rejoin the dollar-bearish camp, with a focus on dollar-yen amid BOJ intervention considerations.
However, Fed rate cuts and/or aggressive BOJ rate hikes aren't on the agenda just yet: For now, the best case scenario for dollar-yen bears may be a 155-160 range.

Slowing growth and elevated interest rates are opening the door to fresh opportunities in the special situations world, as companies face growing “time under tension.” Rob Dafforn, chief investment officer of opportunistic credit at Polus Capital Management, joins Bloomberg Intelligence’s Noel Hebert and Sam Geier on this episode of Credit Crunch, part of the FICC Focus podcast. Dafforn dives into the three main investment targets — cyclical losers, secular losers and frauds — along with creditor-on-creditor violence, the management process for a long-short portfolio and much more.

In this edition of All Options Considered, BI's Chief Global Derivatives Strategist Tanvir Sandhu is joined by Jennifer Welch, Chief Geo-economics Analyst. They focus on geopolitics and market volatility, with topics including the conflicts in the Middle East, oil politics and the US election.

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.