After staring at the Moon for almost eight hours Monday, the commander of NASA's Artemis II mission finally ran out of ways to describe what he was seeing. "No matter how long we look at this, our brains are not processing this image in front of us. It is absolutely spectacular, surreal," said Reid Wiseman, the 50-year-old Navy test pilot leading the four-person crew circumnavigating the Moon. "Th...
After staring at the Moon for almost eight hours Monday, the commander of NASA's Artemis II mission finally ran out of ways to describe what he was seeing. "No matter how long we look at this, our brains are not processing this image in front of us. It is absolutely spectacular, surreal," said Reid Wiseman, the 50-year-old Navy test pilot leading the four-person crew circumnavigating the Moon. "There are no adjectives. I’m going need to invent some new ones to describe what we’re looking at outside this window." Live images from the Orion spacecraft showed the Moon growing larger during final approach Monday. Video from GoPro cameras outside the capsule streamed down in low-resolution format, due to limitations on bandwidth coming back from deep space, but the Artemis II astronauts were expected to downlink sharper telephoto snapshots overnight Monday into Tuesday morning. Read full article Comments
Analysts say the war in Iran is presenting China with an opportunity to cast itself as a more stable and reliable partner than the US for Asian countries. Enze Han, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's Department of Politics and Public Administration, and political scientist and columnist Richard Heydarian weigh in on Bloomberg's "The China Show." (Source: Bloomberg)
Analysts say the war in Iran is presenting China with an opportunity to cast itself as a more stable and reliable partner than the US for Asian countries. Enze Han, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's Department of Politics and Public Administration, and political scientist and columnist Richard Heydarian weigh in on Bloomberg's "The China Show." (Source: Bloomberg)
Torsten Asmus/iStock via Getty Images By Mandy Xu Cross-Asset Volatility : Implied volatilities fell across asset classes last week on optimism over an Iran ceasefire. Interest rate volatility declined the most, with the VIXTLT Index falling over 31 pts wk/wk to 85 bps vol as Powell signaled the Fed will take a “wait and see” approach to any energy-driven inflation increase. Both equity and credit...
Torsten Asmus/iStock via Getty Images By Mandy Xu Cross-Asset Volatility : Implied volatilities fell across asset classes last week on optimism over an Iran ceasefire. Interest rate volatility declined the most, with the VIXTLT Index falling over 31 pts wk/wk to 85 bps vol as Powell signaled the Fed will take a “wait and see” approach to any energy-driven inflation increase. Both equity and credit volatilities came in significantly as US economic data surprised to the upside, with the VIX® Index down over 7 pts and the VIXIG Index down over 18 pts though both still remain elevated in the ~88th percentile high over the past year. Gold volatility fell 7 pts as prices rebounded – notably, however, investors used the rally to reset hedges. GLD 1M skew (25-delta ratio) jumped back to a 1-year high on the back of stronger put demand. Despite the risk-on tone in the market last week, oil prices continued their upward climb, with WTI crude ending the week over $111/bbl (+12% wk/wk) while oil 1M implied volatility held steady at 81%. There’s been very little change in positioning in the oil options market despite talks of a ceasefire, with demand for calls still outpacing puts and oil skew remaining at extremely inverted levels across the front 6-month tenors. Equity Volatility : Options traders have been using SPX® options to fade big moves in the market in both directions. Last week we highlighted how investors have been selling out of hedges on pullbacks and switching into upside calls to play for a rebound. On the rally last week, we saw the opposite – demand for hedges picked up while calls were aggressively monetized (see Exhibit 2). The decline in SPX call skew and call convexity contributed over 2 pts to the 7 pt decline in the VIX Index last week. SPX 1M put skew (25-delta vs. 50-delta ratio) steepened off the lows on the back of stronger hedging demand, rising from the 2nd percentile low to the 37th percentile currently. Most of the hedging flow has been tactical i...
Lemon_tm/iStock via Getty Images Price: $72.59 (3/10/26) Market Capitalization: $3.1B Enterprise Value: $3.8B What the Company Does Formerly known as Alliance Data Systems, Bread is a consumer finance company that partners with retailers to provide private-label and co-branded credit cards and buy now, pay later products, along with retail credit cards and savings products provided directly to con...
Lemon_tm/iStock via Getty Images Price: $72.59 (3/10/26) Market Capitalization: $3.1B Enterprise Value: $3.8B What the Company Does Formerly known as Alliance Data Systems, Bread is a consumer finance company that partners with retailers to provide private-label and co-branded credit cards and buy now, pay later products, along with retail credit cards and savings products provided directly to consumers. Some of Bread’s partners include Caesars, the NFL, Ulta Beauty, and Victoria’s Secret, to name a few, but the company focuses more on small-and medium-sized businesses that generally provide longer growth runways and better economics relative to its larger partners. Why We Own It Bread offers strong growth prospects and a compelling valuation with an experienced and highly capable management team. Although the company is facing near-term headwinds of elevated loss rates on its customer loans and macroeconomic uncertainty, management is targeting a mid-to-high single-digit loan growth rate over the long term with returns on tangible common equity (ROTCE) in the mid-to-high 20% range (vs. 20.4% in FY25). Additionally, management seems well-prepared for a challenging operating environment, as Bread has boosted its common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio by 270bps since the end of 2021 to 13.0% as of 4Q25, which rivals the capital position of large banks, and hiked reserve rates to 11%, despite a net loss rate of <8%, implying a potential EPS tailwind in the future if the economic environment does not significantly worsen from here. The company has also developed a more diverse and stable funding base, as the company’s online direct-to-consumer (DTC) deposits have grown at a compound annual growth rate of ~38% since the end of 2020 to $8.5B at the end of 2025, or 48% of total funding, compared to only 6% in early 2020. Management’s increasing reliance on DTC funding continues to lower its cost of capital, helping Bread’s tangible book value (TBV) per share more than triple be...
Few people have their fingers on the pulse of the global economy like Jamie Dimon. The JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) CEO runs the country's #1 bank by assets and has done so for 20 years, guiding it through everything from the great financial crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, and delivering more than 1,000% total return to shareholders, well ahead of the S&P 500's return. Dimon has also developed a re...
Few people have their fingers on the pulse of the global economy like Jamie Dimon. The JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) CEO runs the country's #1 bank by assets and has done so for 20 years, guiding it through everything from the great financial crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, and delivering more than 1,000% total return to shareholders, well ahead of the S&P 500's return. Dimon has also developed a reputation as a straight-shooter who isn't afraid to share his opinion on the global economy or geopolitics, so it's worth paying attention to what he has to say. Dimon released his annual shareholder letter on Monday, and he had a lot of thoughts to share on interest rates, the rising national debt, and the importance of American values, among other topics. Continue reading
Japan’s 30-year government bond auction drew its weakest demand since June as uncertainty about Middle East tensions damped investor appetite. The bid-to-cover ratio at Tuesday’s sale was 3.12 compared with 3.66 at the last auction and a 12-month average of 3.36. Japan’s bonds were stable after the auction. Japan is among the major economies most vulnerable to the fallout of the Middle East tensio...
Japan’s 30-year government bond auction drew its weakest demand since June as uncertainty about Middle East tensions damped investor appetite. The bid-to-cover ratio at Tuesday’s sale was 3.12 compared with 3.66 at the last auction and a 12-month average of 3.36. Japan’s bonds were stable after the auction. Japan is among the major economies most vulnerable to the fallout of the Middle East tensions, with more than 90% of oil imports coming from the region. The 30-year yield is hovering around 3.78%, near its record high that it hit in January, underscoring concerns about rising inflation driven by higher oil prices. US President Donald Trump insisted that freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz be part of any deal and escalated threats to obliterate key Iranian infrastructure if his terms aren’t met before a Tuesday deadline. Japan’s auction of 10-year notes last week drew the weakest demand since May. In the US, upcoming sales of three-, 10- and 30-year Treasuries will also bring a test of investor appetite after recent lackluster auctions . Meanwhile, persistent yen weakness is compounding inflation risks by pushing up import costs. Japan’s top currency official last week delivered his strongest warning yet to speculators that authorities may take bold action in markets if current conditions persist.
Iran has yet to allow a single carrier loaded with liquefied natural gas to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in weeks of war, according to traders involved in the transit, a ban that risks exacerbating global shortages. Two tankers loaded with Qatari LNG appeared to be making an exit from the Persian Gulf on Monday, only to U-turn within hours. They were denied clearance by Iranian officials, sai...
Iran has yet to allow a single carrier loaded with liquefied natural gas to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in weeks of war, according to traders involved in the transit, a ban that risks exacerbating global shortages. Two tankers loaded with Qatari LNG appeared to be making an exit from the Persian Gulf on Monday, only to U-turn within hours. They were denied clearance by Iranian officials, said the traders, who requested anonymity as they aren’t authorized to speak with media. That abrupt reversal underlines an apparent interdiction in place since the US and Israel began strikes on Iran at the end of February. Traffic through the strait has dropped sharply since then, but oil tankers and others have trickled through the narrow waterway, usually with Iranian permission — while a fifth of the world’s LNG supply remains cut off. Instead, loaded carriers are currently scattered around the gulf, either because they aren’t currently part of talks with Iran for passage, or haven’t been granted approval, the people said. Ship-tracking data show over a dozen loaded LNG tankers idling in the area. It is possible that vessels escaped detection by turning off their transponders or that signal jamming impeded accurate tracking. Traders and ship-tracking data, however, point to only one LNG tanker which traveled through Hormuz earlier this month — without a cargo. Read More: Qatar LNG Ships Appear to Abort Bid to Exit Strait of Hormuz Qatar has been forced to shut its giant Ras Laffan export plant following Iranian attacks last month. Even so, resuming traffic through Hormuz would be a boost , as free passage would allow the country to send shipments that are already loaded. It could also offload fuel from storage, and even begin planning to restart parts of its export plant. Without that gas, the conflict in the Middle East has turned a market with looming oversupply into one contemplating a shortfall. That has sent consumers seeking alternative fuels — Japan and Bangladesh ...