that was marathon's bruce richards with us just a moment ago.ercial real estate bets black rock making some news today hoping on the office bandwagon in a new memo the firm says it will now require everyone to be back in the office at least four days a week with flexibility to work from home one day almost a year to the day of instituting a three day in-office policy i have a feeling we're going to see more of this the labor market isn't so tight, and people are required to come back more. >> yes we'll see what happens let's get to wapner and "the half." >>> carl, thank you very much. welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner front and center this hour big money's big ai bets and what it says about the stocks that can still work in this market even after some nice early year gains. we'll discuss and debate that with the investment committee. joining me right here from post 9 josh brown, stephanie link and jim lebenthal. let's check the markets. largely in the red today home depot is weighing on the dow. the s&p down about ten points. it

joining us is bruce richards, marathon asset management cio. hink the markets came into the cpi number, thinking it would be higher than it was. they came and where it was expected any markets have rallied. did inflation change anything in the bigger picture? absolutely not. it is still close to 5%. the last time i checked, first quarter gdp came in at 1.1%. we are moving toward the scenario of stagflation when we hit a brick -- i recession later. inflation is proving to be sticky based on wage growth and other measures of inflation. guy: good morning, it is guide. the markets focus on one thing at one time. is the debt ceiling that thing? is that where we should be focusing our attention rather than worrying about whether or not we get a small beat or a miss on inflation? bruce: there is a lot to consider. the debt ceiling being one of them, but a very immediate consideration. june 1 as janet yellen has pointed out is around the corner. she has a little more time, maybe june 7 or 15th. it will have a tax date from the corporate tax receipts whi

katie: i think bruce richards would agree with you.e spoke to bloomberg television earlier this week. saying, credit is having a heyday. [video clip] >> what makes us the golden era of credit is very different. we will see a 10% default before this is done with, but 90% -- 90% of price not default. if you are good at picking credits, good at building a portfolio of performing credits on the liquid side and making loans that have tight covenants, that have good credit metrics on good companies that will make it through, you will make the best returns we will see in a generation. katie: matt, i take his point, but a 10% default rate sounds pretty scary to me. what are you anticipating in terms of defaults in this economy? matt: we are looking for a peak of about 6% for high-yield bonds next year. leverage loans at about 8% or 8.5%. the loan market is going to be an above average recession -- default experience. what i would say is, we think everything pivots around the short break. this is a market that cannot absorb the short rate at 5%

bruce richards of marathon asset management says why one more hike may be ahead. >>> what can 2012 telling system alan schwartz, former bair sterns see with us. >>> the co-ceos of on ru

church hill asset management, tomorrow we talked to bruce richards coming up at 10:30 new york time. bloomberg future of finance summit in paris. we will be joined by the bank of america france ceo. this is bloomberg. >> generally credit conditions are tightening. there is selectivity, liquidity generally in the market is a lot more selective, there is a flight to quality but that is to be expected. that is quite natural. but overall i would say if you look at the broad kind of market , you are seeing a general tightening and investors, board rooms are naturally cautious given the economic prognosis. ♪ municipal bonds don't usually get the media coverage the stock market does. in fact, most people don't find them all that exciting. but, if you're looking for the potential for consistent income that's federally tax-free, now is an excellent time to consider municipal bonds from hennion & walsh. if you have at least 10,000 dollars to invest, call and talk with one of our bond specialists at 1-800-286-4286. we'll send you our exclusive bond guide, free. with details about how bonds can

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