Shows / FICC Focus
FICC Focus
FICC Focus offers the latest market views on interest rates, corporate bonds, emerging market debt, commodities, and currencies by Bloomberg Intelligence analysts.
Episodes
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Apollo’s Matt Nord on Hybrid Growth, Opportunity
“Hybrid is the ultimate in creative solutions,” says Apollo’s co-head of equity and head of hybrid, Matt Nord, when discussing the firm’s fast-growing hybrid…
- FICC Focus
All Options Considered: Japan's Election and Market Implications
The Japanese bond market has experienced significant volatility and increased currency intervention risks this year. Ahead of the snap election in which the…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: MBS Update With BI’s Erica Adelberg
Housing affordability challenges are a feature, not a bug, Bloomberg Intelligence chief MBS strategist Erica Adelberg says. On this episode of the Macro…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Lazard’s Whittaker, Howard on EU Stress, Advisory
“There’s no binary differentiation between capital solutions and restructuring anymore,” says Lazard’s co-head of Europe Restructuring and Liability…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Beach Point’s Hunsaker on Structured Landscape
“We’ll risk-manage the portfolios such that, when beta is an uncompelling opportunity set, we have more risk-management overlays in place. And luckily, where…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Morgan Stanley’s Hornbach on Dollar, Yield Curve
A currency is like the equity of a country, so the dollar’s recent decline is akin to a drop in the stock of the US, says Morgan Stanley Global Head of Macro…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Europe-US Divestment Concerns Look Overstated
Americans seem to be overreacting to concerns that European investors might divest from US assets, Bloomberg Intelligence chief European interest rate…
- FICC Focus
State of Distressed Debt: 2026 Outlook, STG, First Brands, Hertz
Bloomberg Intelligence’s State of Distressed Debt hosts Noel Hebert, Phil Brendel and Negisa Balluku explore what 2026 may have in store for the leveraged…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Leveraged Loan, Private Credit, CLO Outlook 2026
Private credit is becoming an alternative to loan financing and CLOs are driving most loan supply. In this Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam…
- FICC Focus
All Options Considered: Equity Derivatives Dynamics With UBS
SPX correlation is historically low, while the average single-stock volatility is elevated amid AI momentum. In this edition of the All Options Considered…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Ample Reserves and Fed Stigma With Darrell Duffie
The quantity of reserves is now determined by the amount necessary to run the payment system, says Darrell Duffie, a professor at Stanford University. On the…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Axar’s Axelrod on Zombie Owners and Credit Cycle
“Time can be a good thing. Time can be a very bad thing…I think the whole market moves a bit slower now when there are problems in terms of how those problems…
- FICC Focus
FX Moment: Brown Brothers Harriman's Haddad on G10 FX in 2026
The 2026 dollar bear view is at the mercy of confirmed Fed dovishness, with the different stages of respective G10 monetary policy cycles likely to shape…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: 2026 US Economic Drivers With CFB’s Shulyatyeva
The Conference Board isn’t expecting a recession, but Yelena Shulyatyeva, the research group’s senior US economist, anticipates a meaningful slowdown in…
- FICC Focus
EM Lens: Between a Rally and a Hard Place in EM Local Rates
EM local government bond valuations look less appealing as we enter 2026, with cross-asset volatility poised to rise from historically low levels. Phoenix…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: NISA’s Eichhorn on Alpha and Liability Management
“All alpha is excess return, not all excess return is alpha,” says NISA CEO and Head of Investment Strategies David Eichhorn when discussing the use of…
- FICC Focus
FICC Focus Special: High Yield Outlook
As part of Bloomberg Intelligence’s 2026 Fixed Income Markets Outlook: Opportunity Amid Policy Uncertainty event, this panel examines the outlook for junk bond…
- FICC Focus
FICC Focus Special: Panel Discusses Investment Grade Outlook
This special edition of the FICC Focus podcast features the recording of a Dec. 4 panel discussion exploring investment grade spreads, issuance and strategies…
- FICC Focus
State of Distressed Debt: Latham's Sobolewski on Debtor Playbook
“Ad hoc groups are decades old at this point. Co-ops are new. Since when do we have to promise to be friends? I think [co-ops] are inherently lame.” John…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: KKR’s Pietrzak on Asset-Based Finance, AI Impact
“There’s some articles out there that [suggest] once there’s losses, there could be a bunch of fire sales of assets ... not true,” says KKR Partner and Global…
- FICC Focus
EM Lens: Event Risk Set to Rise Yet EM Should Still Outperform
Event risk is poised to increase across the emerging-market fixed income landscape, as creditors must contend with elections in Brazil, Chile, Colombia…
- FICC Focus
FICC Special: Harbor’s Litton Talks US Commercial Real Estate
US commercial real estate is set to keep stabilizing in 2026 as liquidity improves and capitalization rates decline. Harbor Group International President…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Around the World of Global Credit in 60 Minutes
Global credit markets are tight, and strategic insights are essential looking into 2026. In this episode of the Credit Crunch podcast, Mahesh Bhimalingam…
- FICC Focus
Global BIFX Team Shares Strongest FX Views into 2026: FX Moment
The Fed and yield-driven bearish US dollar view remains our central working assumption into 2026, yet this could be a bumpy run depending on how US economic…
- FICC Focus
State of Distressed Debt: Jennifer Selendy on LME Battles, Antitrust
“You’re in the realm of the antitrust principles and the vapors that come off the big antitrust cases. I was very skeptical of the idea of a single company’s…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: BI Rates 2026 US Treasury Market Outlook
The Federal Reserve may cut its benchmark rate below 3% next year, bull steepening the yield curve beyond what’s priced into forwards, says Ira Jersey…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Views from Above - How to Think Credit at Tights?
Credit is tight and entering 2026 in uncertain times. Bloomberg’s London Credit Outlook event addressed this theme in depth and was recorded for this episode…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Where AI Fits With Cognitive Credit’s Rob Slater
“If there are things in your business that need to get done, but they’re pretty low risk, this is a great place to start because it has a very attractive…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Global Asset Allocation With Stephen Dover
Policy rates will likely be cut three times in 2026, with the 10-year yield between 4-4.5%, says Stephen Dover, chief market strategist at Franklin Templeton…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Sound Point's Steve Ketchum on Credit's Revolution
“Everyone we compete with, other CEOs of asset managers, credit asset managers that I talk to, are hyper-focused on making sure that there's not another…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Credit Clubs, Sovereign Crises, AT1s vs. Hybrids
Credit is tight, though it’s fared better in 2025 than rates and equities through many crises across the globe — France, tariffs, Fed concerns and Britain’s…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Akin’s Ramanathan on Capital Solutions
“The uptake among public companies actually is the biggest evolution in the field, because public companies are beginning to recognize the value of this asset…
- FICC Focus
State of Distressed Debt: Houlihan Lokey’s Tuck Hardie Is Back
“It may or may not be good ... or binding precedent, but I think ConvergeOne will actually make the holdout risk worse because the minority lenders will now…
- FICC Focus
All Options Considered: Bloomberg Volatility Forum NYC 2025, Part II
Secular AI themes, product development in the volatility ecosystem and fault lines in the economy, as well as navigating volatility in digital assets, are…
- FICC Focus
FX Moment: Fiscal Strain Leaves No Way Out of Sterling Bear Trap
The UK fiscal predicament will likely keep sterling under pressure heading into the Nov. 26 budget. The view is starting to look crowded, and recent moves…
- FICC Focus
All Options Considered: Bloomberg Volatility Forum NYC 2025
This edition of All Options Considered is the recording of part of the Bloomberg Volatility Forum 2025 held in NYC on October 28th. It starts with the keynote…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: New Mountain’s Kaplan on Net-Lease Landscape
“Manufacturing assets, the availability of them, have been chronically undersupplied for decades,” says Teddy Kaplan, CEO of Net Lease for New Mountain…
- FICC Focus
FICC Focus: Newmark’s Hinton on US Commercial Real-Estate Outlook
Investor sentiment is improving across commercial real estate as liquidity improves, cash flows stabilize and capitalization rates compress. Jimmy Hinton…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: US and Canada Monetary Policy Recap and Outlook
I don’t think that the next Fed chair does much to change my expectations for the terminal rate this cycle, says Stuart Paul, US & Canada Economist for…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Corbin Capital’s Cocke on Value in Fixed Income
“Where your capital is going to create value, that’s the area we want to focus on the most. So today we see a lot of that in telecom broadly defined…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Trade and Fed With Fed Watch Advisors’ Emons
Renewed US-China trade tensions, the impact of tariffs on rare-earth minerals and the growing uncertainty facing markets are among the topics discussed in this…
- FICC Focus
State of Distressed Debt: Cadwalader’s Mintz on Recent LME Litigation
“If I were a lender, I would sign a coop with everyone — or mostly everyone — the day after the loan closes, and then just let it sit there.” That’s Douglas…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Gold and Gold Stocks With Merk Investments CIO
Gold isn’t showing signs of true dollar debasement, if it were, there would be an even more severe market reaction, says Merk Investments co-founder and CIO…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Investor Survey, France, Trade War and 4Q Outlook
Credit and high yield had a good 2025, despite tariffs and rates volatility as spreads held ground. Will 4Q sustain this resilience and why? Mahesh…
- FICC Focus
All Options Considered: Equity Derivatives With Susquehanna
There are some interesting developments in equity volatility which have trading implications from the pronounced spread between VIX and SPX realized…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: ABS Market Review With BI’s Rod Chadehumbe
Asset-backed securities issuance remains slightly behind the same period in 2024, even with Tricolor-related angst continuing, notes Bloomberg Intelligence ABS…
- FICC Focus
FX Moment: Mizuho's Rochester on the Yen
The unexpected election of the LDP’s Sanae Takaichi and her known bias for expansionary fiscal policies is questioning the yen’s bull case and the currency’s…
- FICC Focus
EM Lens: From Risk to Resilience With Andersen’s Natalucci
Institutional appetite for high-beta asset classes continues to endure yet traditional safe havens are not behaving as they should. Fabio Natalucci, CEO of the…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: All Things Rates with BofA Strategist Swiber
The Federal Reserve moving away from the federal funds rate as the policy target would be welcome, said Meghan Swiber, senior US rates strategist at Bank of…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: Rithm’s Nierenberg on M&A, Recasting Perceptions
“Being able to underwrite a consumer, being able to offer that product to that consumer and then being able to touch that consumer is very, very important,”…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Mortgage-Market Update With BI’s Erica Adelberg
Mortgage-backed securities may benefit from renewed bank demand as Fed easing improves net interest margins, according to Bloomberg Intelligence mortgage…
- FICC Focus
All Options Considered: Volatility of NFT Art - View from Christie's
Digital art has been around for decades but blockchain technology provides provenance. In this edition of the All Options Considered podcast, BI chief global…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Global Central-Bank Meetings Review — Rates Recap
The official line is that QT has added 15-25 bps on 10-year gilts, but it’s probably adding quite a bit more than that, says Huw Worthington, chief European…
FICC FocusCredit Crunch: Adams Street’s Diehl on Trends in Private Capital
“I think it’s very difficult to predict a world where you might go back to zero interest rates. And so that all portends that there’s likely to be an uptick in…
- FICC Focus
State of Distressed: Joele Frank’s Freitag on Distressed Liaisons
“I spend most of my time trying to downplay the stuff that you find fascinating, right?,” Joele Frank Partner Michael Freitag says. “The inter-creditor…
- FICC Focus
EM Lens: Risk Appetite Is Improving, Capital Flows to Follow
Foreign demand for emerging-market local debt is improving, as overseas investors pursue yield differentials amid diminishing currency volatility. Bertrand…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Federated Hermes Gallo on Fixed Income Outlook
“The Federal Reserve was created to have a degree of what I like to call operational independence”, says Federated Hermes Deputy Chief Investment Officer for…
- FICC Focus
Credit Crunch: France, Tariffs, Fed, UK: Credit Always Resilient
Credit fared better than rates and equities through multiple crises this year across the globe — France, tariffs, Fed concerns and even the UK worries. In this…
- FICC Focus
Masters of the Muniverse: Munis Await Institutional Backstop
Institutional demand has been slow to return to the muni market in 2025, leaving performance at the long end under pressure. Yet signs are emerging that banks…
- FICC Focus
Macro Matters: Yield-Curve Steepening With Mizuho’s Konstam
The real yield curve may steepen from both ends much further then it has, Mizuho Securities Head of Macro Strategy Dominic Konstam says on this Macro Matters…