Category: Daily Instagraph

US banks are currently sitting on more than 400 bn USD of unrealized losses in their bond portfolios. The  amount of losses is at an all-time high and 10% higher than at the beginning of the year, just before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. We believe this duration mismatch between long term assets and … Continued

Hamas surprise attack on Israel is triggering fears of an oil supply chock. The Wall Street Journal reported Iranian security officials helped Hamas plan on its attack on Israel. If this proves correct, the risk of further destabilization in the region is high especially in case of a retaliation by Israel considering Iran is a … Continued

The US consumer is feeling the heat from the higher interest rates: delinquencies in consumer loans and bankruptcies are noticeably on the rise. The pain in mortgages is somewhat delayed as many mortgages are locked in at low rates. While the US consumer remains in pretty healthy shape, he will need to adapt to the … Continued

Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of Warren Buffett, has accumulated a record war chest approaching 150 bn USD of cash & equivalents. This cash pile can be put to work when investment opportunities arise in case of a market disruption. Buffett has shown in the past that buying good assets at distressed prices when other … Continued

Today’s graph is for the investors who still believe you cannot lose money with US government bonds. Yes, you obviously can if you own long dated maturities and rates are rising. The I-shares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF is down 48% since its high in 2020 and the PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon US Treasuries … Continued

With one quarter to go in 2023 for portfolio managers to generate performance, it needs to be stressed again how binary US equity markets have been for investors this year. Success or failure boiled down to one decision, namely being invested in the so-called magnificent 7 stocks ( Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDA and … Continued

Under the surface, the US equity market is doing less well than the headline performance numbers may suggest. The so-called magnificent seven, Nvidia, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft Apple, Alphabet and Tesla, explain indeed most of the performance of the S&P 500. A lot of the investor excitement is driven by the AI theme. The equal-weighted S&P … Continued

Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family, currently trades at a holding discount above 45% to its Net Asset Value. This Net Asset Value is measured daily by Mister Market as around 80% of the portfolio are listed assets traded in the stock market. Main holdings are Ferrari, Stellantis (with the Fiat and Jeep … Continued

In case you are just back from a late and long Summer break without access to financial news ( lucky you ), here is the big picture of what happened over the last weeks. Interest rates are up, the USD continues to strengthen and stock markets have been weakening since July. Nasdaq is down more … Continued

Central banks in developed market have increased interest rates between 4% and 5.5% since the beginning of the tightening cycle ( ex Japan ). The Fed is now pausing and there are increasing signs that central bankers believe the job is close to done as the restrictive monetary policy shows effects. The increase in bankruptcies, … Continued