FICC Focus

Rob Dafforn, Chief Investment Officer at Polus Capital Management, discusses special situations in a slowing growth environment, targeting cyclical losers, secular losers, and frauds. He also covers creditor-on-creditor violence, management process for long-short portfolios, and 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.

BI's Erica Adelberg and Will Hoffman discuss MBS market trends, housing market performance, and the implications of continued MBS runoff from the Fed's balance sheet. They delve into structural demand implications, rising housing prices, refinancing trends, and the evaluation of higher mortgage coupons.

Raphael Thuin from Tikehau Capital discusses rate-cut delays impacting credit markets globally with Bloomberg's Chief European Credit Strategist. They analyze inflation trends, divergence in monetary policy between the US and Europe, market repricing effects on credit spreads, euro and dollar performance in foreign exchange, and fixed income opportunities in European credit markets.

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.

Dan Zwirn, CEO of Arena Investors, discusses the benefits of special situations strategy, concern about asset bubbles, and the advantages of partnering in investments. He delves into global investment strategies, diverse sourcing methods, navigating financial market complexities, creating efficient transaction systems, and the impact of company culture on business success.

Bloomberg Intelligence US Rates Strategy Associate Will Hoffman joins BI's Chief Interest Rate Strategist Ira Jersey on this episode to discuss the recent turbulence in the Treasury market. Topics include the implications of the recent CPI surprise, details of the upcoming Treasury buyback operations, and insights from the Federal Reserve's March meeting minutes regarding their balance-sheet policy evolution.