ferrantraite/E+ via Getty Images The market is at a tough crossroads midway through 2026. We're sitting at all-time highs, but the vast majority of those gains have been concentrated into a very small group of AI-linked semiconductor and hardware stocks. To me, it's a great opportunity for investors to reassess the value trade, especially in deeply sold-off sectors like software. That said, we do ...
ferrantraite/E+ via Getty Images The market is at a tough crossroads midway through 2026. We're sitting at all-time highs, but the vast majority of those gains have been concentrated into a very small group of AI-linked semiconductor and hardware stocks. To me, it's a great opportunity for investors to reassess the value trade, especially in deeply sold-off sectors like software. That said, we do have to be careful of fundamental decliners in the space and be very selective in terms of buying stocks that are trading at the right price while still performing well. VTEX ( VTEX ), an e-commerce software company that specializes in Latin America, no longer meets the second objective. The stock recently notched a rebound and is up modestly since the start of the year, giving us an excellent time to cash out of the position. Data by YCharts I last wrote a neutral article on VTEX in March, when the stock was trading under $4 per share. Since then, VTEX has rebounded modestly, even after initially falling after a disappointing Q1 earnings release in early May. I'm still anchored to the company's falling growth rates, and I think the recent rebound rally will reverse, leading me to downgrade my viewpoint on the stock to sell. In my view, there are now abundant risk factors in this stock that are impossible to ignore. The core red flags here are; Deeply slowing core growth metrics. The company's GMV has slowed to single-digit growth on an FX-neutral basis, meaning that the company's client storefronts are no longer that attractive of a growth story. At the same time, the company's acquisition of new large customers has also slowed down considerably. Erratic FX swings. The company primarily operates in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. At the moment, the sharp weakening of the U.S. dollar against these currencies has produced enormous benefits for VTEX and covered some of its organic slowdowns, due to the fact that the company reports in USD. However, currency trends are incredib...
Earnings Call Insights: Yesway, Inc. (YSWY) Q1 2026 Management View Chief Executive Officer Thomas Trkla framed the quarter as the company’s first as a public issuer, highlighting scale and footprint: “As of March 31, 2026, we operated 449 stores, making Yesway the 15th largest convenience store operator in the country.” Trkla emphasized the company’s differentiated food positioning anchored by Al...
Earnings Call Insights: Yesway, Inc. (YSWY) Q1 2026 Management View Chief Executive Officer Thomas Trkla framed the quarter as the company’s first as a public issuer, highlighting scale and footprint: “As of March 31, 2026, we operated 449 stores, making Yesway the 15th largest convenience store operator in the country.” Trkla emphasized the company’s differentiated food positioning anchored by Allsup’s: “Allsup’s is especially well known for its iconic deep-fried burrito... [and] serves as an important driver of customer traffic, repeat visits and loyalty for our combined store base.” Trkla described the IPO and uses of proceeds: “Inclusive of the full exercise of the greenshoe option, we raised approximately $322 million in net proceeds, which we have used to fully redeem our preferred equity and to repay $10 million of debt. An additional $20 million of debt repayment was made following the close of the offering.” Trkla pointed to Q1 performance and early Q2 trends: “Most notably, our profitability reached an all-time high with adjusted EBITDA increasing 112.9% year-over-year to over $59 million... we are also pleased to report that the positive momentum in our business has continued with same-store sales and gallons positive through the end of May.” Chief Financial Officer Ericka Ayles tied results to pricing actions and fuel execution: “Inside merchandise sales increased 9.5% year-over-year to $213.7 million or 4.5% on a same-store basis... driven primarily by pricing initiatives taken during Q4 2025 and Q1 2026.” Ayles attributed fuel margin benefits to volatility: “The geopolitical developments in the Middle East have increased fuel price volatility across the industry, benefiting retailer profitability.” Outlook Management introduced fiscal 2026 guidance and framed key uncertainty around fuel volatility: “Our outlook for fiscal 2026 reflects the strength of our first quarter performance and the momentum we have carried into the first 2 months of Q2. That sai...
Cliffwater Private Credit Fund Gates Investors For Second Straight Quarter After Redemption Requests Soar To 17% The market may be in full-blown face-ripping bubble mode, and software stocks are now gripped in by a category 5 gamma squeeze hurricane, but not even that is helping the ongoing debacle that is private credit. The flagship private credit fund of Cliffwater, a fund which has was slammed...
Cliffwater Private Credit Fund Gates Investors For Second Straight Quarter After Redemption Requests Soar To 17% The market may be in full-blown face-ripping bubble mode, and software stocks are now gripped in by a category 5 gamma squeeze hurricane, but not even that is helping the ongoing debacle that is private credit. The flagship private credit fund of Cliffwater, a fund which has was slammed by redemption requests in the past quarter as the private credit crisis came to a fore, has again gated investors by capping redemptions at 5% in the second quarter after investors looked to pull more than three times that amount, or 17% of shares, Bloomberg reported, in a sign of relentless pressure on the $1.8 trillion market. The $31 billion Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund informed shareholders Tuesday that they’d get about one-third of their requested money back, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg. The prior quarter, investors got back around half of the roughly 14% they asked for, with the vehicle choosing to cap withdrawals at 7%. Shortly after Cliffwater’s decision in March, S&P Global Ratings lowered its outlook on the interval fund to negative from stable, warning that the 5% redemption threshold is “an important guardrail.” “Our repurchase program is intentionally designed to provide shareholders with periodic liquidity that aligns with the fund’s long-term investment strategy and its underlying assets,” Cliffwater CEI Stephen Nesbitt said in the letter to investors. And by periodic liquidity he meant far less liquidity than investors hoped to recovery. The firm previously said that the fund, which has delivered a roughly 9.4% annualized net return since it was formed in 2019, has enough liquidity to meet 5% redemptions for more than a year without selling a position or an asset. After a second straight quarter of gating that may be tested very soon. Cliffwater has become something of an unlikely giant in the private credit market by raising money at a rap...
Former first lady speaks about Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race at event for her new memoir Jill Biden recalled the immense pressure that Joe Biden faced in the aftermath of his disastrous 2024 debate performance, saying he told her “Jilly, I had no choice,” following his decision to drop out of the presidential race. The former first lady made the comments during a Tue...
Former first lady speaks about Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race at event for her new memoir Jill Biden recalled the immense pressure that Joe Biden faced in the aftermath of his disastrous 2024 debate performance, saying he told her “Jilly, I had no choice,” following his decision to drop out of the presidential race. The former first lady made the comments during a Tuesday book event coinciding with the release of her new memoir, View from the East Wing. The event was held at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and moderated by comedian and co-host of The View, Whoopi Goldberg. Former president Biden was in attendance at the event and received two standing ovations from the crowd. Continue reading...
Florian Hettich, COO at Bizlink, discusses the company's business strategy and the impact from the AI boom. He speaks with Stephen Engle from the sidelines of Computex in Taipei. (Source: Bloomberg)
Florian Hettich, COO at Bizlink, discusses the company's business strategy and the impact from the AI boom. He speaks with Stephen Engle from the sidelines of Computex in Taipei. (Source: Bloomberg)
South Korea’s Kospi stock market has hit record highs thanks to AI, but experts urge caution over boom-bust cycles and a heavy reliance on two chipmakers South Korea has leapfrogged India to become the world’s sixth largest share market, leaving equity markets in the UK, Germany and France trailing in its dust. But despite the runaway success, some are raising concerns that the Kospi index is too ...
South Korea’s Kospi stock market has hit record highs thanks to AI, but experts urge caution over boom-bust cycles and a heavy reliance on two chipmakers South Korea has leapfrogged India to become the world’s sixth largest share market, leaving equity markets in the UK, Germany and France trailing in its dust. But despite the runaway success, some are raising concerns that the Kospi index is too dependent on two freshly minted trillion-dollar chipmaking companies. Chip company SK Hynix last week claimed a seat in Asia’s trillion-dollar company club, alongside South Korean compatriot Samsung Electronics and Taiwan’s TSMC. Explosive demand for chips used in AI has propelled the trio past the valuation threshold. Continue reading...
Dan Ives, Global Head of Technology Research at Wedbush Securities, discusses the revival of the AI trade and looks ahead to the listings of OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX. He speaks with Haidi Stroud-Watts and Paul Allen on Bloomberg: The Asia Trade. (Source: Bloomberg)
Dan Ives, Global Head of Technology Research at Wedbush Securities, discusses the revival of the AI trade and looks ahead to the listings of OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX. He speaks with Haidi Stroud-Watts and Paul Allen on Bloomberg: The Asia Trade. (Source: Bloomberg)
Investors should increase their hedging toward the end of summer, as stretched momentum in the S & P 500, macroeconomic risks and persistently higher oil prices heighten market uncertainty, according to Chris Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna. After a strong seasonal run, the S & P 500 is "starting to look increasingly vulnerable to a correlation shock," Murphy said. "Investor...
Investors should increase their hedging toward the end of summer, as stretched momentum in the S & P 500, macroeconomic risks and persistently higher oil prices heighten market uncertainty, according to Chris Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna. After a strong seasonal run, the S & P 500 is "starting to look increasingly vulnerable to a correlation shock," Murphy said. "Investors are entering the summer window with crowded momentum exposure, heavy large-cap tech positioning, low asset-manager cash, and a market that has become increasingly dependent on a narrow group of AI, semiconductor, and mega-cap leaders," he noted. While the tech sector has been posting one of its strongest two-month runs since 1990 which helped to propel the rally in the S & P 500, the momentum surges "do not last forever," according to Murphy. Murphy noted that the upside call skew has moved sharply higher across Nvidia, Broadcom, Invesco QQQ Trust, VanEck Semiconductor ETF and the broader top-50 S & P component universe, with prime-book momentum exposure at record highs while large-cap tech positioning is near the 95th percentile. Further, current macroeconomic risks would call for more hedging, given that consumer sentiment may be pressured in the coming months by persistently higher oil prices, while decline in the savings rate could signal another sign of fragility, Murphy said. "For investors who have benefited from the AI and tech-led rally, late summer may be a reasonable window to add protection while the market is still calm, rather than waiting for volatility, correlation, and put skew to reprice after the first real break in momentum," he said.