market folly

Jay Petschek and Steven Major's hedge fund Corsair Capital is out with its second quarter letter. 

In it, they touch on the unique world of negative interest rates we now live in and how investors are reacting:

"The U.S. stock market is currently trading at approximately 16x-17x next year’s earnings. This equates to an earning’s yield of approximately 6% after-tax and 8% on a pre-tax basis - a big gap to 10-year treasury bonds yielding just 1.5%. As long as investors believe that stocks will generally continue to earn what they currently do (even with zero growth), equities will seem to be mathematically quite cheap compared to bonds. Of course, just because bonds are expensive doesn't mean investors have to invest in stocks. However, if not stocks, where will investors turn? It just seems the answer is TINA – there is no alternative – as all assets are historically expensive and stocks may prove to be the proverbial 'best house in a lousy neighborhood.'"

They also provide updates on numerous positions, including Diamond Resorts International (DRII), Olin Corp (OLN), Clearwater Paper (CLW), Voya Financial (VOYA), Countrywide plc (CWD),  and IAC/InterActive (IAC).


Lastly, they feature a write-up on Quintiles Transnational (Q) which is set to merge with IMS Health (IMS).


Embedded below is Corsair's Q2 letter:



For more recent hedge fund letters, we've also posted:

- Third Point's Q2 letter

- Greenlight Capital's Q2 letter