December served up the full Woodworth sampler platter: Oregon’s market “scoreboard” gave us a mid-month sugar high and a month-end reality check, a 90s peso hangover reminded everyone that “international outperformance” can just be FX doing cardio, and a dating app the market ghosted might be lining up the rebound trade. We also dig into housing policy that keeps blaming the wrong villain while missing the supply mismatch, a coastal port pitch that sells greenfield automation and rail efficiency (and gets attacked for dredging while the Columbia quietly gets dredged for 100+ miles), the latest push to replace quarterly facts with semiannual vibes, and why faith in the economic data plumbing matters more than ever—because when the scoreboard gets politicized, markets don’t get calmer, they get louder.

— Managing Partners Drew Millegan & Quinn Millegan

This month we revisit the original oil panic, the whiskey glut nobody noticed, homebuilders’ disappearing margins, the new WORM index for Oregon companies, and the only friend AI data centers really have - natural gas. In other words: 1970s stagflation, a hangover in a bourbon warehouse, housing builders racing each other to the bottom, and an energy transition that still quietly runs on methane. If you like panic, mispricing, and real assets that don’t care about your factor model, you’re in the right place. As a final note, the recent S&P rebalancing saw thirteen companies removed from the S&P 600 small cap index - three of them are current holdings. We like being part of the cast offs. This was even a signal to review each of the others as possible investment targets.

— Managing Partners Drew Millegan & Quinn Millegan