Investors are challenged today with so much data and distraction coming at them from every angle. This makes it tough to see the big picture, which looks pretty good. After a dramatic 50 bp chop to the Fed funds rate barely two weeks ago, the mood has swung around once again. Now it’s more like,“What’s…
The 7th Annual Greenwich Economic Forum this week brought together dozens of CEOs, CIOs, and top financial executives of all stripes for thought-provoking conversations. Topics included trends in asset management, global geopolitics, financial technology, and financial regulation. Tough to find more sophisticated and diverse thought-leadership outside a small town in Switzerland or the Beverly Hills…
Our friends at Bloomberg hit the market last week with a startling headline: “Private Credit Faces Worst Reckoning Since 2008.” Just in time for us to speak to hundreds of institutional investors at conferences in Traverse City, Michigan, and Toronto about private credit’s virtues. We did find evidence of solid risk management. A recent Fitch…
One of the unalloyed joys of our job these days is around Fed meetings. We’ve known for four years this moment would arrive, but the timing and extent of the rate cut kept analysts guessing. And despite countless experts weighing in until the last minute, the Fed’s “big move” caught many by surprise. Not that…
We admit to a weakness for sports metaphors, particularly baseball. Perhaps it’s how happenings in the national pastime so often mirror life. And the capital markets. Our latest pearl of wisdom comes from Carlos Mendoza. After his star shortstop Francisco Lindor ended a slump with a game-winning home run, the NY Mets manager was asked…
When it comes to private capital, institutional investors in Italy have an increasing variety of options. Exposure to US private equity, for example. And while specialized strategies have emerged (e.g. venture capital), the focus on established buyout funds has been prevailing. Private equity issuance has been particularly active. For the first quarter of 2024, even…
Someone once said, “A vacation is what you take when you no longer can take what you’ve been taking.” We reflected on this, returning post-Labor Day this week to a market where investors have been taking a lot so far in 2024. What will the next few months bring? Our fondness for inflection points suggests…
For some months the performance of public markets, both fixed income and equities, brooked few doubters. As one strategist put it, “Stocks have become a buy high, sell higher asset class.” All that changed last week. July’s labor report showed the US economy added only 114k jobs, down sharply from June’s level of 179k. Unemployment…
For a long-time practitioner and educator in the private capital space, there’s nothing like engaging with sophisticated investors digging deep into nuances of the asset class. In London and the Midlands, these discussions centered around such questions as: 1. How will growth of private markets impact appetite in direct contribution plans and semi-liquid strategies? 2….
Last week we visited our UK colleagues, clients and friends for a number of discussions around private capital. These conversations echoed similar sentiments from investors at home, with many funds building on already existing positions in both private credit and private equity. We heard about strategies, not related to timing, but rather more sophisticated approaches…