CRE – Impending Doom
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz The financial spotlight this past week has been on New York Community Bank (NYSE: NYCB) with its rather disappointing earnings for Q4 2023. Since reporting last Thursday, NYCB’s share price has tumbled more than 50% (congratulations to any short sellers out there), and the market is having Déjà vu […]
Rate Cuts Are Coming!
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Are we experiencing a soft landing? Is the most anticipated recession in history about to commence? In a recent panel at the Titan Investors Global Business Connections in Miami, I queried a lineup of leading CIOs about the Goldilocks economic data and the overly optimistic market sentiment. Although the feedback […]
What is Private Credit?
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Let’s take a step back for a moment and review how a traditional bank works. In general, a bank receives money through customer deposits and ultimately lends those deposits out to customers for business and household purposes (such as mortgages, auto loans, real estate loans, revolving credit, etc.). The difference […]
2023 In Review
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz 2023 was the year of Taylor Swift! We have it under good authority that Taylor Swift helped boost US GDP this year… but on to a more serious note: From global bank failures to the AI revolution, 2023 was action packed. For investors, there were big opportunities for those willing […]
The U.S. Consumer: Buy Now Pay (hopefully) Later
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Following the record Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales last week, the “Strong U.S. consumer” headline has resurfaced once again. People are buying things, which means the economy is strong…right? Well, our investment team aligns with what billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffen said earlier this month: The U.S. needs […]
How to Read Treasury Auctions
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz U.S. Treasuries, a usually boring security, have become one of the most widely talked about investments in 2023. We have even started to see commercials from brokerage houses and investment platforms that offer everyday investors access to “Treasury Bills” paying X amount. They market these government backed investments as the […]
The Fed, One and Done
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz We expect the Fed to hike rates by another 25-basis points at today’s July meeting. Just a reminder, we (rates) are already in restrictive territory, and today’s decision will bring the FOMC target range up to 5.50%. Since the beginning of this tightening cycle, the Fed has raised rates 550 […]
