Summary

  • Cost management and asset optimization helped partially offset macro headwinds in 2020, contributing to stable EBITDA and allowing excess cash flow to be used for debt reduction and in some cases, buybacks.
  • While controlling costs helped many companies navigate market headwinds, some companies elected to reduce their distributions in order to further improve financial flexibility and reduce leverage.
  • A continued focus on controlling costs and optimizing assets should benefit the space into the future as some savings prove sustainable and new efficiencies are realized.

Read now

Other posts

Thoughts From The Divide: Particularly Fluid

BY JON WEBB
Now a week out from the Fed making it clear that the squeeze of lower growth isn’t worth the juice of bringing inflation back to (not toward, Jerry!) 2%, Mohamed El-Erian summed up the state of play nicely in a recent article for the FT. The Queens’ College president noted that, “It is not often that you see a reputable central bank revise up its inflation and growth projections and yet strengthen a dovish tilt to its policy stance. Yet that is what happened in Washington last week when the Federal Reserve raised those projections up a notch and yet delivered two consequential signals – a willingness to tolerate higher inflation for longer and an openness to slow the ongoing reduction in its balance sheet.” Read more →

MI2 for C8 – JPY Liftshaft Alert

BY JON WEBB
There is a window emerging for position reduction in the widely held JPY carry trade. Positions are crowded at the same time that the rationale for the extension of the current benign regime is diminishing (carry, carry-to-vol, policy divergence, etc). There is no sense of danger within analyst expectations or embedded in option pricing. While we lack an immediate catalyst, sometimes price can be its own trigger. With USDJPY around 156 and an easily defined stop loss, the risk reward of engaging with JPY strength is compelling. Escalator / liftshaft price action provides significant convexity. Crowded JPY shorts would also need to be covered in the event of a risk-off catalyst coming from other asset classes. Owning USDJPY puts can be an attractive portfolio hedge for investors concerned about general market complacency or for more active tactical FX managers and traders. Read more →

NDR Dynamic Allocation Strategy May 2024 Update

BY BRIAN SANBORN
Dynamic Allocation Strategy, indicators, weightings update Read more →
Back to all posts →