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The disruption caused by the conflict in Iran has not fully permeate into the global economy yet. It’s an oil shock in first order, but the second and third orders affect agriculture, transportation, and Trade, to name a few. Take a look at the chart below. China has just published a massive trade surplus of $1.18Tn over the last 12 months ending in March 30th. Despite tariffs and conflicts, China continues to build and export an incredible amount of goods to the world. They

The AI race is taking place also outside the US and China. South Korea and particularly Taiwan are the epicenters of the movement, particularly in terms of hardware. And their respective stock markets are reflecting that reality. Taiwan stock market cap has surpassed the UK, and South Korea’s has surpassed Germany’s. Think about that for a second: with 23 million people, Taiwan has been able to create more wealth than the financial powerhouse UK, with 68 million people. And t

The new Fed chairman confirmation hearing took place yesterday, and as expected was highly politicized and lacked real substance. The Trump’s “sock puppet”, as senator Warren described Mr Warsh, will in all likelihood be confirmed. While the Washington circus was on, the situation in Iran continues to change every few hours. Blockade on/off, attacks on/off, rhetorics on/off. Another circus. These distractions may have the final objective of making the market numb to the real

Today, Kevin Warsh, the Trump nominee for chairman of the Federal Reserve will go to Congress to be “grilled” by the special committee set up for this matter. Kevin Warsh is supposed to be very different from prior Fed chairmans. He has his academic background, but has worked in the private sector and is actively involved in investing for others and his own. He’s perceived as a hawk (tough with inflation) but advocates for low interest rates and small Fed balance sheet. He th

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran has no plan for another round of negotiations with the United States, stating that any US delegation travelling to Islamabad is “their own matter”. Baqaei also stated that transferring Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles to the US or any third country has never been part of talks and is not under consideration. And just like that we are in War mode again, with reports that the U.S. may be sending troops to Iran to ta

Perhaps we have forgotten about the other wars we are immersed in. Aside from th military conflict, we’re in a technological war regarding AI, and we’re on a trade war, mostly with China, to close the trade deficit and restore manufacturing capacity in the US. It is still too early to confirm the U.S. is back at making things home, but the chart below is encouraging. Installed capacity, has been steadily growing for 5 years now. First to avoid contraction, and since 2022, wit

An interesting development is occurring in parallel to the Iranian conflict. Perhaps because of it. The trading volume in Chinese, remimbi denominated bonds has picked up significantly. These bonds trade in the Hong Kong North bound bond Connect and, although there is no breakdown by investor type, all of them are international investors: asset managers, pension plans, or central banks might be diversifying away from U.S. treasuries. China is the second largest debt issuer a

Investing in the current environment is becoming challenging. If you apply pure rational analytics, perhaps you should have a big portion of your portfolio in cash (for instance like Warren Buffett), but if you look at equity indices, we have regained all time highs. Also, inflation is picking up, so perhaps cash is not ideal when it comes to a long term investing plan. In the charts below, you can see that, using the S&P500 as a whole, the case is not compelling: CAPE Schill

US equity markets have re conquered all time highs. Perhaps it’s due to optimism on the end of the Iranian conflict, even though it’s still not clear when and how it will happen. Perhaps investors have decided to move on when they saw oil tankers coming to the US for oil. But it’s the debt market that requires attention. It’s also at an all time high. Debt keeps piling up. US Debt has grown almost 10X over the last 26 years (as of today national debt is $39.1Tn). For China, t

With everything that’s happening in the Middle East, the potential escalation with Turkey, the ongoing negotiations to reopen Hormuz, and the private credit issues, you would think the market should be down for the year. But it’s not. The S&P500 is up YTD, as you can see in the chart below. It’s actually 35 points from all time highs. The resilience of this market is remarkable. Perhaps the reason why investors have found renewed interest in the U.S. equity market has to do w

The economists at the Dallas Fed have published a study that, among other things, presents the impact on oil and US inflation of 3 quarters of continuous blockade in the strait of Hormuz. You can see see the results regarding oil in the chart below. $110/barrel for 1 quarter, up to $167 if it remains closed for 3 quarters. CPI could reach 5% annualized. That is a warm welcome to Kevin Warsh at the Fed. That is almost a guarantee of economic recession for the U.S. and Europe.

On Friday, the U.S. bureau of labor statistics published the March inflation report. The monthly increase was 0.9%, and the YoY price increase was 3.3%. In the chart below you can see that the jump was basically due to energy prices, linked to the conflict in Iran. The market thinks this is temporary. The news from Hormuz tells us it may be more permanent than we think. There’s a toll now imposed on we very ship that crosses thr strait, and now it appears that no ship is allo

The negotiations in Islamabad concluded after 21 hours with no agreement between the parties. The U.S. delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance will be returning to the U.S. without a deal on Hormuz, nuclear proliferation or conflicts through Iran armed proxy groups. No clear path forward has been stablished, which means we can see attacks again. Not clear if the ceasefire will stand. Since negotiations took place over a weekend, the only market reference we have is crypto,

The negotiations between Iran and the U.S. are about to begin. The U.S. delegation has arrived to Islamabad, and It appears that Iran has the upper hand. Interestingly, they has invited China and Russia as its witnesses. The US has invited Saudi Arabia and Qatar on its side. At the same time, the US has authorized the release of $6 Bn in frozen Iranian funds with Qatar and South Korea to arrange the transfer within days. The main objective seems to be opening the strait of Ho

The BEA published yesterday the thrid and final revision of the U.S. GDP for the fourth quarter of 2025. From the impressive 4.4% of the 3Q25, we went from 1.4% for the initial 4Q25 print, to 0.7% in the second revision, to 0.5% for the final one. All of them are annualized figures. In the chart below you can see the trend. The U.S. economy is slowing down, amd thanks to conflicts, and the rise in oil, we have sticky inflation, perhaps temporary. We have been in the temporary

As expected, the workable list of points presented by Iran was immediately violated, in this case by Israel, who took the opportunity to bomb Lebanon, trying to eliminate Hezbollah. Iran has responded by closing again the strait of Hormuz, so we’re back to square one. But are we? Oil has not moved back to the prior highs, and US equity futures are slightly down. Is the market starting to adjust to the consequences of the conflict? Or is it because China is starting to interve

Yesterday, Iran presented its "10-point plan" which includes the following terms: 1. Complete cessation of the war on Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. 2. Complete and permanent cessation of the war on Iran with no time limit. 3. Ending all conflicts in the region in their entirety. 4. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz. 5. Establishing a protocol and conditions to ensure freedom and security of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. 6. Full payment of compensation for reconstruction

The asset coverage test (ACT) is a key leverage restriction under the 1940 Act, applicable to Business Development Companies (BDCs). BDCs are the public sister of Private Credit funds. The test measures a BDC’s ability to cover its senior securities (primarily outstanding debt/borrowings and any preferred stock) with its assets. Most BDCs today adhere to the lower coverage ratio of 150% (effectively 2:1 debt to equity) post 2018 (it used to be 200%), provided they have appro

It’s increasingly difficult to understand the status of the Iranian conflict. Just when you think both parties are close to reaching an agreement, there’s more bombing. And the situation changes, literally, by the hour. We’re in the latest 48h Trump ultimatum that coincides with the prior 10 day warning he published 10 days ago. But at the same time they seem to be negotiating a truce. Brent oil is down so far today, which means the market thinks the talks are real. But inve

The Iranian conflict has entered its second month with significant escalation involving direct US involvement alongside Israel. It has caused thousands of deaths (military and civilian) across Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and Gulf states, widespread infrastructure damage, displacement of millions, and disruptions to global energy markets thanks to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The situation remains fluid and highly escalatory, with risks of further missile exchanges, proxy i