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In 1998, the world’s most famous hedge fund (Long Term Capital Management) collapsed due to what was later known as the Asian currency crisis. It involved the Thai bath, the Indonesian Rupiah, the Korean won, and a few others. It was almost 30 years ago, and some things have changed. But currently, we have some stress on some Asian currencies again, and it’s inevitable to remember those days. As an example, take a look at the chart below: at the bottom, the Korean Kospi index

Something is going on in crypto land. Almost $2Bn of leveraged position have been allegedly liquidated in a few hours. Perhaps the foundation of the Bitcoin is being challenged after the U.S. Treasury Secretary announced that he has seized a significant amount of bitcoin from Iran. The permisionless and decentralization characteristics, alongside the fact that there is a finite amount available, is what make Bitcoin a great idea. Those characteristics rhyme with freedom from

Fresh all time highs for the S&P500. In April, it was down 7.1% for the year. Now we’re up 11% YTD. 44% on a rolling 2 year period, as you can see in the lower chart below. The companies in the index are presenting one of the strongest earnings growth periods of modern history. At the same time, and in the same period, gold measured in US dollars has almost doubled. Or if we flip the reasoning, the dollar’s purchasing power, in gold terms, has almost halved. Is that one of th

Alphabet Inc. ( Google’s parent) announced its latest major capital raise yesterday: an $80 billion equity capital raise to fund AI infrastructure and compute expansion. The use of funds: Primarily to scale AI compute infrastructure amid “unprecedented customer demand” for AI solutions. This supports Alphabet’s aggressive 2026 capital expenditure (capex) plans of $180–190 billion (roughly double 2025 levels), focused on data centers, power, and related infrastructure. The de

There is a canary in the AI coal mine. It’s the South Korean Kospi index. In the first 5 months of 2026, it has already double. And if you thought the U.S. had a concentration problem, it’s a joke compared to the Kospi. Almost half of the index market cap is composed of Samsung and SK Hynix. And leveraged is very high. But of course, it’s “justified” because chip exports on May were 169% up YoY. The index has been stopped several times this year because it has hit the upside

After a spectacular 1Q earnings season, and despite geopolitical events, and some macro data, the U.S. equity market keeps making new all time highs. The concentration is historic, but investors believe it’s justified as AI will govern our lives pretty soon, and there will be very few winners, perhaps only one. The tables below remind us that we have been here before, and bull markets die on euphoria, and age. According to the table on the right, the current bull market for t

According to american newspapers, the U.S. and Iran are the closest they have been to reach an agreement on the framework for the relationship going forward. Aside from the core items such as opening Hormuz and abandon the nuclear program, there is the issue of the Iranian frozen funds and the possibility of reopening the Swift platform so they can transact in US dollars. But the story today has to do with the alternative to that route. Bitcoin came of in 2007 as a permisionl

Yesterday was not a good day for economic data in the U.S. GDP for the first quarter was revised down to 1.6% annualized rate, which doesn’t tell a great growth picture. But the real story is the consumer. Disposable income is falling down, pressured by low real salaries and high inflation. As a consequence, the savings rate is just above the all time low. The middle class is being crushed. You can see that in the charts below. The importance of opening the strait of Hormuz i

A very interesting fact is shown in the chart below. When markets get ahead of themselves, often you see signs that would indicate common sense has taken the back seat. There are currently more ETFs listed in the U.S. than actual stocks, which is the typical underlying of those ETFs. Think about that for a second: there are more baskets of financial assets, than financial assets. It’s like having more hammers than nails. We also know that the total gross notional exposure in

With almost 90% of S&P500 Companies reported, 1Q26 was one of the strongest U.S. earnings seasons in recent years for the S&P 500: (1) Revenue growth: 11.6% YoY, the highest since Q2 2022. (2) Earnings (net income/EPS) growth: 28.4% year-over-year. This marks the highest since Q4 2021 and the sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. (3) Net profit margin: 14.8% up from the prior year (12.8%) and above the 5-year average. (4) Beat rates were exceptionally high: 84% of

The Iranian conflict took another turn yesterday. When both parties were allegedly going to reach an agreement, the US conducted strikes it called defensive; Iran called them a breach. Neither side has fully abandoned the truce framework as of the latest reports, but it’s under heavy strain. Which begs the question if the true motives of the conflict have changed for the US. Perhaps what started as a rapid conflict to seize a big oil producer and provoke a regime change, is n

The Cleveland Fed's CPI Nowcasting model, which estimates inflation before official data is released, currently stands at 4.18%. This data point has been published this week, as Mr Warsh was swore in. It’s is a welcome message from an economy that is running hot in prices, but it’s not hot in salaries or jobs. Take a look at the chart below: you’re looking at the Index of consumer sentiment in the US. The index is constructed on 5 core questions: (1) personal finances today v

The chart below puts together perhaps the most important combination of rates that will shape the US economy not only for the rest of 2026, but perhaps the rest of the decade. Fed funds futures and the SOFR curve are indicating higher rates ahead. We are talking about a 4ish handle again for Fed funds. At the beggining of this year (and frankly not that long ago, when Trump was pressuring to lower rates quickly) we were debating wether we could go down to 2%. The dot plot tha

The posterchild of AI frenzy reported results yesterday after the market closed. As you can see on the charts below, NVDA reported 85% YoY revenue growth with a net marging of 71%. They can drop the mic right there. Those are incredible results. And the AI hype continues: SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic have announced plans to go public. SpaceX has already filed the S-1 form with the SEC. Valuation is expected to surpass $1Tn. And Anthropic has committed $19Bn a year into SpaceX

There is something going on in the precious metal market. It’s no secret that both gold and silver are being manipulated by banks and hedge funds, for different reasons, suppressing the value in the west and creating incredible arbitrage opportunities with the east, where both metals trade much higher. Yesterday, Hong Kong authorities announced they are creating a hub for clearing physical gold. It will be a government-owned mechanism (in other words China will own it) and wi

The official playbook for the newly appointed Fed chairman consists of decreasing the Fed’s balance sheet and cut rates. In his mind, and we will not disagree with him, inflation is primarily caused by money printing, not by low interest rates. And here lies the big irony: currently, the Fed is doing exactly the opposite. Take a look at the charts below: the market is now expecting higher interest rates (blue line, top chart), following the Fed indications. And if you look at

Yields in Japan continue to go up. The 30 and 40 year JGBs are already above 4% and, looking at the chart below, it appears they are on a parabolic trend. The 10 year and the 20 year are following the same path. The UK curve (not on the chart) is above 5% from 9 year gilts up to 30 years, which is getting too close to 6% (5.86%). This is very important is several fronts: (1) with elevate levels of debt, the cost of servicing new debt at this levels will increase significantly

In 1 month, there will be a new FOMC meeting, this time presided by Kevin Warsh, the recently appointed Chairman of the Fed. He wil need to abide to the dual mandate of price stability and full employment, but he has mentioned his views differ on what the Fed has been doing for decades. His take, simplified: (1) the Fed’s balance sheet needs to be small out of crisis. (2) inflation is a choice (3) you can lower rates and decrease the balance sheet at the same time and inflati

Investment into Artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to grow at an incredible pace. Hyperscalers are expected to pour $1Tn in 2017 into data centers , chips, engineers, and whatever else is needed to win the race. But the AI game is an infinite game, only the one that survives wins. And the Mag 7 are desperately trying to be that one. Take a look at the charts below, starting with the bottom one: America is spending more money constructing data centers than buildi

It’s interesting to watch Trump and Xi having good words for each other in public, but it would be more interesting to see the tone of their conversations in closed doors, where they tackle the world problems, their rivalry on AI, access to resources such as rare earth elements or geopolitics. In similar fashion, the S&P 500 keeps reaching new highs, and everything looks good, but in this case we do have some visibility behind the curtain. Please take a look at the charts bel