Strategic Income Quarterly Update – January 2022

Thus far in 2025, the prevailing and overriding topic of conversation amongst economists and market participants has been tariffs and what they might mean for the global macro outlook. Not surprisingly, as we wrap up first quarter earnings season, tariffs have also emerged as the primary focus of CEOs and management teams of US corporates at the micro level.

European banks are coming to the end of the Q1 2025 reporting season, and on the surface there are multiple headwinds to contend with. Interest rates – generally a significant factor in banks’ earning potential – have come down from peak levels, and economic uncertainty has been heightened by somewhat inconsistent trade rhetoric from the US administration.

With much fanfare, President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer announced a “historic” trade deal between the US and UK on Thursday. The main points for the UK are a reduction in auto tariffs from 27.5% to 10% for the first 100,000 cars that enter the US, and the removal of steel and aluminium tariffs.

April was one of the most volatile months across financial markets in recent memory, triggered by President Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement on April 2. While much has been written about the geopolitical and economic implications, here we will focus on how equity, credit and rates markets have adjusted following what was a sharp sell-off and subsequent recovery.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) published its first estimate for Q1 US GDP growth, which at -0.3% was slightly worse than the Bloomberg consensus of -0.2% on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), seasonally adjusted, annualised basis. While the headline of the US experiencing negative growth looks quite bad, the detail of the report looks much better.

The high yield bond market reopened in Europe last week after a three-week hiatus triggered by the US tariffs fallout. Aside from a private placement by Very Group on April 10, the last public European high yield deal was from UK homebuilder Miller Homes on March 31, so we were interested to see how the first post-tariffs deal would be received.