FICC Focus

The journey of a founder is one filled with challenges, but an intellectually enriching experience in the words of Shorecliff Asset Management's Grant Nachman. Grant joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Noel Hebert and Sam Geier on this episode of Credit Crunch to discuss the launching of a new firm, and Shorecliff's full cycle credit investing strategy. We dig into the benefits of having a lean team, a bottom-up due diligence process, the ideal size for the strategy, and much more. Credit Crunch is part of the FICC Focus podcast.

Murat Ulgen, Global Head of EM Research at HSBC, and BI’s Chief Emerging Markets Credit Strategist Damian Sassower discuss how US yields and the dollar have driven emerging-market risk premiums and how resilient the asset class has been to rates repricing throughout 1H. They note dispersion within the broader market, the role of carry and the drivers behind the sentiment change in specific geographies - notably a curtailed bullishness for Latin America, and a shift toward Central and Eastern Europe and Africa. Their conversation spans Turkey, South Africa, China (and its EM role) as well as frontier and distressed markets.

High yield corporate credit had a strong 1H, despite rates volatility, as spreads rallied and defaults stayed low. In Europe, the index default rate stands at 0.85% and the share of stressed and distressed bonds has come down, while it's higher in the US. Will 3Q sustain those gains, and why? Listen to Mahesh Bhimalingam, Bloomberg Intelligence's Chief European Credit Strategist, discuss the results of the 3Q High Yield Survey, along with market outlook, with Peter Aspbury, Head of European High Yield and PM at JP Morgan Asset Management. They discuss the BI 3Q investor survey report, which covers investor positioning, sentiment, key return drivers, default and supply forecasts and relative-value opinions by geography, rating and sector. They also discuss how high grade and leveraged loan prospects compare with junk.

Unsurprisingly, US congressional partisanship is at it's highest level ever. There is no fiscal restrain on either side of the aisle, says Macro Matters host and Bloomberg Intelligence's chief US rate strategist Ira Jersey. Jersey is joined by BI's chief European rate strategist Huw Worthington to discuss the implications of global elections across sovereign debt markets. The pair discuss the recent volatility spurred by French and UK elections and the impact on relative value across markets. They also dissect the outcomes of the November US Presidential elections and the implications of shifting trade and geopolitical stances on the economic backdrop

French and UK politics generated most headlines in recent weeks -- and France's political conundrum has yet to be solved -- but US politics are likely to take center stage and dictate the dollar's fortunes in the run-up to the Nov. 5 elections. Audrey Childe-Freeman, Bloomberg Intelligence's chief G-10 FX strategist, talks to BI's senior government analyst Nathan Dean about the near-term political agenda and what considerations may dominate when it comes to finalizing the Democrats' candidate. Nathan and Audrey also investigate how a second Trump administration may affect the dollar cyclically-- bullish via trade plus fiscal and monetary policy -- and structurally -- any tilt toward isolationism would be negative for the dollar in the longer term.