Ted Zhang
Portfolio Manager of Turbotection at Revere Asset Management
Private credit and major financials, including Ares, Carlyle, KKR, Blue Owl, Blackstone, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, are in the doghouse over a risk the market fears more than the Iran war. Anthropic's Dario Amodei has said something similar, and more and more companies are letting people go. x.comÂ
Hyperscaler credit stress and weak financials-versus-staples leadership warn of downside risk in the S&P 500 consolidation. Spreads have broken July wides, though an upside breakout is probable if financials stabilize. So far, tech weakness has lowered yields as Fed hikes are priced out, letting defensives rally and the S&P chop. If the Fed signals Nasdaq weakness won't stop tightening without better data, the tech-yield link could break in an uncomfortable, 2018-like direction. x.com x.com … Show more
High debt and rate hikes make a big US equity correction likely. Warsh said nothing useful despite hot CPI and PPI after two weeks of hawkish rhetoric, while the rest of the Fed fence-sits. A debt crisis is incoming, and some funds will blow up soon. Big caps are the last leg; the bigger correction could be something like 20%. It is not a good time to buy dips. x.com x.com x.com x.com x.com x.com x.comÂ
The highest-quality private equity and private credit managers, Apollo, Ares, Blackstone and KKR, are back on sale, mainly because of interest rates. They are not as cheap as during March's SaaS debt scare, and weaker names such as Blue Owl are still to be avoided. x.com x.comÂ
Large-cap banks such as JPMorgan and Carvana are exposed to a coming credit crisis that war headlines are distracting investors from. The private debt market keeps imploding, and troubles at JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock and Deutsche Bank are symptoms of a broad debt-market problem. More esoteric debt such as subprime auto loans is likely to come under scrutiny next, which is why the short positions remain. x.comÂ
Anthropic's S-1 and @UncleAlpha007's claim that Microsoft is growing despite a 27% headcount cut have turned the near-term tech-equity view bullish. At least a tradable rally is expected; further upside depends on Iran developments and PCE. Stay nimble. x.com x.comÂ
European financial stocks look badly exposed to socialism, second-order effects from Iran and collapsing credit, so the short on European financials stays. @qthomp, often a sparring partner on tech, fully agrees here, and the FT reports, via @LiveSquawk, that hedge funds are making record bets against European stocks. x.comÂ
Blackstone's private credit boom may be ending now that the 10-year/3-month Treasury spread has reached +100bps. On the chart, the shares retested their 4Q21 level and made a false move above the monthly 50-period moving average, so a sharp drop is the setup to brace for. x.comÂ
Blackstone, KKR, Apollo, Ares and Carlyle face a re-pricing, not a correction, because AI capex is artificially inflating S&P 500 earnings. Hyperscaler capex becomes Nvidia revenue, whose profits make the index look healthy, but those are front-loaded accounting gains, not durable cash flows. When the capex cycle slows, the reversal hits everything downstream, including alternative managers and private credit. Per @Fiscal_ai, drawdowns already run from 33% at Carlyle to 46% at KKR and Ares. … Show more
US large-cap stocks are at risk because credit markets move before equities, with junk bonds leading the S&P 500. Elliott Wave International notes CCC-rated junk-bond spreads have widened sharply to their widest level in nearly three years, and that widening junk spreads have often preceded weakness in stocks. x.comÂ
Oracle's stock is ignoring nervous credit desks, which is not a good sign. Per @CheddarFlow, Oracle's credit risk has skyrocketed, yet the shares still trade as if it isn't happening. x.comÂ
