Alternative Investing Report - March 20, 2026

In partnership with

*as of 3/19; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, 30YM

Municipal Bonds
Example: Nuveen High Yield Municipal Bond Fund (MUTF: NHMRX)
Current price: $14.30 (average annual return since inception: 4.78%)

• Municipal bonds offer a fantastic way to address tax efficiency

• As states look for revenue, tax-efficient strategies like munis are a good play

• For high net worth investors, optimizing tax treatment is a very important dynamic

Here’s a list of our past expert investment picks.

Ken Kencel is the President and CEO of Churchill Asset Management, an affiliate of Nuveen, the asset manager of TIAA, a Fortune 500 financial services company. He also serves as Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. (NYSE: NCDL) and Nuveen Churchill Private Capital Income Fund (PCAP), Churchill’s publicly registered business development companies.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Churchill Asset Management CEO Ken Kencel about the evolution of private credit and the impact of AI on the asset class.

📈 VCX goes public: The Fundrise Innovation Fund — with a portfolio including Anthropic, OpenAI, Anduril, Databricks, SpaceX and more — went public, shooting up from $31 per share to a high of $128 before closing at $76.16, up 143%. The fund’s NAV coming into the offering was $18.97, so investors are paying up for access, creating a premium that may come down in six months when many original holders can first sell their shares.

🚀 Swarmer’s IPO pops: The drone startup jumped from its IPO price of $5 per share to $31 at the end of its first day of trading, and now sits above $50 per share, a strong sign of the market’s appetite for defense tech companies.

❌ Meta shuts down Horizon Worlds: The tech giant that renamed itself after the metaverse is closing its VR metaverse platform on June 15, ending a costly chapter for a company that has since pivoted to AI.

🪙 Kraken postpones IPO: The crypto exchange has decided to shelve its public offering due to market volatility and the crypto market’s downturn since last fall, when it originally filed with the SEC. The question investors now face is when the crypto IPO window will reopen, if ever.

🏡 Median asking rents fall: The national median asking rent fell 1.7% year-over-year, hitting its lowest point in four years, with rents in all 50 major metro areas now falling below their peaks.

🥃 Million dollar whiskey casks: The last two remaining casks of Karuizawa Japanese single malt from 1999 sold for $2.29 million each, as demand for whiskey from the now-legendary closed distillery continues to grow.

Monday: 🎸 Irsay memorabilia auctions, 📊 PCE inflation report
Tuesday: 💵 Private credit struggles, 🎨 Banksy’s identity revealed
Wednesday: 🪙 Crypto rally, 🏡 Pending home sales increase
Thursday: 📊 Fed decision, 🪙 Mastercard acquires BVNK

Have a great weekend!