Market Catalysts Host Julie Hyman reports on the latest market moves in the first full trading hour of February 17, 2026. Dutch Bros CEO Christine Barone joins the program alongside Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Brooke DiPalma to talk more about the coffeehouse chain’s 2029 expansion goals. Asterozoa Capital CIO Joe Hegener weighs in on recent AI disruptions to the software space.
Joe Hegener, founder and chief investment officer of Asterozoa Capital Management, said the recent “indiscriminate selling” across software stocks will help separate the winners and losers in the sector, highlighting Datadog as a company that is “better positioned now with the adoption of artificial intelligence.”
Joe Hegener, founder and chief investment officer of Asterozoa Capital Management, warned that a market downturn could be especially damaging because “the top 10% propping up the economy right now could drive a much more outsized recession than we’ve seen in years past.”
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs posted profits that topped expectations Thursday, and Joe Hegener, founder and chief investment officer with Asterozoa Capital Management sees the banking industry continuing to perform well in part because of the benefits it will reap from the advancement of AI.
https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/idRW712515012026RP1/
Joe Hegener, founder and chief investment officer with Asterozoa Capital Management, says markets could be supported by a “tsunami of liquidity in 2026,” as accelerating corporate earnings, fiscal and monetary stimulus and lower energy costs create strong tailwinds for stocks.
By Joseph Adinolfi | October 24, 2025
“Sources of return that are truly less correlated or even hedged to passive indices are getting harder and harder to find,” said Joe Hegener, founder and CIO of Asterozoa Capital, an Arizona-based hedge fund. Asterozoa has $150 million in assets under management. Despite its smaller size, Asterozoa had some inbound interest from investors during the third quarter, Hegener said.
Read the full article here.
Nancy Davis and Joe Hegener discuss the Michigan Consumer Sentiment report, which was slightly better than expected though still moving lower. Joe notes that half of all domestic consumption is being done by the top 10% of households, income-wise. He calls this concerning for democracy and the economy and discusses the difficulty the rest of the U.S. is having. Nancy reminds viewers that with the government shutdown affecting data, this is one of our only glimpses into the economy.
“We’re having a hard time finding anything in credit that produces a meaningful yield without a lot of risk,” said Joe Hegener, founder and chief investment officer of Asterozoa Capital Management, which is a subadvisor for the Simplify Opportunistic Income CRDT 0.00% ETF.
“There is voracious demand for any commercial paper that yields in excess of 5%,” he said. “But we’re a little contrarian.”
Read the full article here.
Could a bubble be forming around equity markets (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) as Big Tech pivots harder and harder into AI? To better understand what this could mean from the credit investing side of things, Asterozoa Capital CIO Joe Hegener sits down with Julie Hyman on the Morning Brief to talk more about the market environment for credit default swaps (CDS) and credit spreads.
Also catch Joe Hegener illustrate whether investors are pouring “gasoline on the fire” as an AI-driven bubble could be forming around markets.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief.