Philipp Haas
Founder of Haas invest4 Innovation Fund, Creator of investresearch
Brazil could be the Q4 macro story after Flávio Bolsonaro won the election's first round and, with most eliminated votes leaning right, became the runoff favorite against Lula. Brazil-linked stocks were priced for disaster on US yields, election risk and rate fears. Nu is the quality blue chip, while Inter & Co and PicPay have far more room to grow and are much cheaper; StoneCo, PagSeguro, dLocal and MercadoLibre are also candidates. x.com x.com x.com
MercadoLibre and Nu Holdings have massive runways and have thrived across political backdrops, so they do not need tax cuts or deregulation to keep winning. Both have performed extremely well in Brazil under Lula since 2023, even in a fragile macro backdrop. The election-driven selloff left these cream-of-the-crop businesses at lower multiples, and more near-term selloffs are possible. x.com x.com x.com x.com
Nu Holdings' sustained growth makes election-driven pessimism look overdone. Quarterly revenue before credit-loss provisions grew at a 45.1% annualized rate from Q1 2023 to Q2 2026 under Lula. This Brazilian shock looks like the tariff scare, when markets quickly shrugged off initial pessimism. FedexSTi notes that Nu reached 139 million customers and $1 billion in quarterly net income after enduring Brazil's 2014-16 recession, Dilma's impeachment and the pandemic. x.com x.com x.com
Crowded Brazil and EWZ longs are exposed after Lula's surprise election win, as reported by negligible_cap. MercadoLibre and many others are going to get absolutely nuked tomorrow. x.com
Excellent management makes dLocal, MercadoLibre and Nu Holdings three great companies to pick up at a discount after the Lula-election selloff. Their Brazil exposure sent them down 9%, 9% and 22% on claims that the investment climate had worsened, a claim worth questioning. x.com
Political fear after Lula election wins is a buying opportunity in Brazilian stocks, including EWZ, MercadoLibre and Nu Holdings. In USD, the table shows 12-month gains of 115% after 2002, 76% after 2006 and 18.5% after 2022, though shorter-term returns varied. x.com
South American political unpredictability keeps investors from rewarding MercadoLibre's excellent fundamentals. Today's selloff illustrates that risk, despite the strength of the business. x.com x.com
Nu Holdings' US entry targets people from Latin America now living there, rather than direct competition with SoFi or Robinhood; entering the US matters much more than Brazil's election. After Lula's reelection, Nu opened down 21% and was testing its yearly lows. This dip is likely a great long-term buy. x.com x.com x.com
Brazil's political developments have driven a selloff that makes Nu Holdings a dip opportunity. NU is down 19% amid the market's reaction. x.com
Nu's 33% ROE is not proven until it survives a full credit cycle, because a bank's underwriting is only tested when borrowers stop paying. Per @sytaylor, Q2 revenue rose 39% to $5.9bn and net income topped $1bn. The open question is what happens to that ROE when unemployment rises, payments are missed, credit losses climb and money gets more expensive. Brazil's slowing economy and rising NPLs are not the same as a full cycle; until then the reported ROE is somewhat fake. x.com x.com x.com
Brazilian equities look uninvestable as the political shift toward socialism threatens to make an already poor inflation-adjusted long-term bet worse. The Brazil ETF's sharp decline after the political outcome illustrates the concern, though individual winners remain possible. x.com x.com x.com
