Alternative Markets Update – Mid July 2026

Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs.
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On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts.

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RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. 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RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE VOL. 279 July 2026 Alternative Markets Update Equities Equity markets have held close to record levels through the first half of July, though the tone has become more cautious as the renewed flare-up in the Middle East reintroduced energy risk into an otherwise resilient tape. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain up around 11% and 16% YTD respectively, supported by continued strength in large-cap technology and the AI complex, but the sharp move higher in oil prices in the second week of July prompted a modest risk-off rotation, with energy-sensitive sectors outperforming and rate-sensitive growth names giving back some of their recent gains. The market’s willingness to look through geopolitical escalation has been a defining feature of 2026, but that patience is increasingly contingent on oil not sustaining a move back toward wartime highs. On the IPO front, the SpaceX listing has continued to mature as a public benchmark. The stock was admitted to the Nasdaq-100 on 7 July under the exchange’s fast-entry rule, less than a month after its debut, triggering an estimated $4.3bn of passive buying from index-tracking funds. The episode has become a live test of how quickly mega-cap listings are absorbed into passive portfolios, and it sets a template for the Anthropic and OpenAI listings expected later in the year. For investors, the more important read-through is structural: the speed of index inclusion means passive flows now amplify the post-IPO price action of these names, adding a technical dimension to what were already volatile debuts. The broader question for equity allocators is concentration. With a small cohort of AI-linked mega-caps still driving the bulk of index-level returns, the market remains vulnerable to any shift in sentiment around AI capital expenditure, or to a sustained rise in energy costs that pressures corporate margins. The mid-July backdrop is a useful reminder that equity strength and macro fragility can coexist, and that resilience at the index level should not be mistaken for broad-based participation. Fixed Income & Rates The central macro development of the period was the breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire and the return of a geopolitical risk premium to energy markets. Following attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in early July, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, revoked its temporary waiver on Iranian oil sales, and declared the June memorandum of understanding effectively over. Oil repriced sharply in response: as shown in Graph 1, WTI moved back to around $75 and Brent to roughly $78-79, up from approximately $69 and $72 at the start of that week, though both remain well below the near-$120 highs seen at the height of the conflict earlier in the year. The speed of the move shows how quickly the war premium can re-enter the market, and how central the Strait of Hormuz remains to the global inflation outlook, given that around a fifth of global seaborne oil normally passes through it.   Figure 1: Brent and WTI crude oil prices 2026 (Source: CNBC / Trading Economics) The repricing in energy fed directly into rates. As shown in Graph 2, the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 4.57% in the second week of July, its highest in roughly two months, before easing back slightly to around 4.56% as reports emerged that negotiations would continue despite the escalation; the 30-year yield has traded above the 5.0% mark. Markets continue to price at least one further rate hike before year-end, and the minutes of the June FOMC meeting confirmed that several policymakers had seen a case for raising rates even as the Committee held. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is due to make his first appearance before Congress this week, and has separately announced the leadership of five internal task forces to review the central bank’s approach to policy, signalling potential changes to how the Fed operates. The renewed energy premium reinforces the hawkish tilt: so long as oil remains elevated and the Hormuz situation unresolved, the balance of risk on rates points toward higher for longer.   Figure 2: US Treasury yields 2026, 10-year and 30-year (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury) The more lasting story behind the immediate volatility is structural. The repeated disruption to Hormuz has accelerated efforts across the Gulf to build export capacity that bypasses the Strait entirely. The UAE is fast-tracking its West-East pipeline to the port of Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman beyond the chokepoint; the project is reported to be roughly half complete and, once operational in 2027, would roughly double the country’s Hormuz-independent export capacity when combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, as illustrated in Graph 3. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea provides a comparable alternative. The wider implication for institutional investors is that the risk premium attached to Hormuz may gradually diminish over the medium term as physical bypass capacity comes online, even while the near-term risk remains acute. The chokepoint’s share of global oil transit looks set to fall structurally, reducing though not eliminating its capacity to move markets.   Figure 2: UAE crude export capacity bypassing the Strait of Hormuz (Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera) Alternative Strategies The return of macro volatility has been a welcome development for the hedge fund industry, particularly for the macro and systematic strategies that had lagged during the June de-escalation. Total industry capital stood at a record $5.22 trillion at the end of Q1, the fourteenth consecutive quarterly increase, and the sustained demand reflects a clear institutional preference for strategies able to navigate exactly the kind of geopolitical and inflation-driven dislocations now dominating the tape. The sharp reversal in oil and rates in early July plays directly to the strengths of managers positioned for volatility across commodities, currencies and fixed income. Dispersion across strategies is likely to remain pronounced: macro and trend-following are well placed to benefit from renewed directional moves in energy and rates, though sharp reversals in the risk premium can catch managers on the wrong side of a ceasefire headline, while equity hedge faces a more mixed setup as concentration risk and energy-driven margin pressure complicate the equity picture. Differences in performance can be examined in the SMC Strategy Indices. In venture capital, the picture remains sharply bifurcated, and the macro backdrop has reinforced rather than resolved the split. Overall deal value has been buoyed by a small number of very large AI rounds, with roughly 80% of first-quarter US venture capital flowing to AI-related companies, even as the broader, non-AI venture market remains starved of capital and fundraising sits near multi-year lows. The higher-for-longer rate environment weighs directly on the asset class: elevated discount rates compress the present value of the long-dated, growth-oriented cash flows that venture returns depend on, and a still-narrow IPO window limits the exits needed to return capital to investors. The reopening of the listing pipeline, evident in the SpaceX debut and the pending Anthropic and OpenAI filings, is therefore particularly important for venture, as it offers the first meaningful exit route in some time; the risk is that this route stays open only for the largest AI names while the rest of the portfolio waits. Private equity is navigating the same tension between abundant capital and constrained liquidity. Fundraising fell by around 30% in the first half of the year, with commitments concentrating heavily in a handful of mega-funds, while exit activity has remained subdued as buyers and sellers continue to disagree on valuations against a higher cost of capital. With traditional exits still difficult, sponsors have leaned increasingly on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries as the primary means of returning capital, and distributions to paid-in capital have become the metric investors watch most closely. The renewed geopolitical volatility and firmer rate outlook are unhelpful at the margin, widening bid-ask spreads and further delaying the exit recovery that the industry needs; as in hedge funds and venture, the dispersion between managers able to demonstrate realised returns and those relying on multiple expansion continues to widen. For investors across all three areas, the common thread is that a higher-for-longer rate path and episodic geopolitical risk reward discipline, liquidity management and genuine value creation over broad directional exposure.   STONE MOUNTAIN CAPITAL Stone Mountain Capital is an advisory boutique established in 2012 and headquartered in London with offices Pfaeffikon in Switzerland, Tallinn in Estonia and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates. We are advising 30+ best in class single hedge fund and multi-strategy managers across equity, credit, and tactical trading (global macro, CTAs and volatility). In private assets, we advise 10+ sponsors and general partners across private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, capital relief trades (CRT) by structuring funding vehicles, rating advisory and private placements. As of 14th June 2025, Stone Mountain Capital has total alternative Assets under Advisory (AuA) of US$ 62.9 billion. US$ 48.8 billion is mandated in hedge funds and US$ 14.1 billion in private assets and corporate finance (private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, fintech). Stone Mountain Capital has arranged new capital commitments of US$ 2.03 billion across more than 25 hedge fund, private asset and corporate finance mandates and has been awarded over 140 industry awards for research, structuring and placement of alternative investments. As a socially responsible group, Stone Mountain Capital is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). Stone Mountain Capital applies Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) filters to all off its alternative investment strategies and general partners on behalf of investors.  Our Team   Our Mandates   Our Research   Our News     Contact We are able to source any specific alternative investment search and maintain relationships with dozens of best-in-class hedge fund managers, private equity and private debt general partners (GPs) and real estate and infrastructure developers. We don’t pass any costs on to our investors, since our compensation comes from our mandated managers, GPs and developers. Please contact us, should you require further information about our solutions.   Schedule a call with the team Main UK Tel.: +44 207 268 4905 Main UAE Tel.: +971 4383 5386 We have updated our privacy policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR. Please take some time to read the policy, which explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and other relevant information. You can review our privacy policy here, our anti-bribery policy here and our commitment to the UK stewardship code here. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is registered (Reference: ZA589246) in the data protection public register of the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') in the United Kingdom. No action is required if you wish to remain in contact, however please reply if you want your details removed by contacting us at [email protected] or by using the unsubscribe button below. In case this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you want to subscribe, please click here. Stone Mountain Capital is a limited company (LTD) registered in England & Wales with registered number 8763463. The registered address is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, England, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital LTD is the Distributor of foreign collective investment schemes distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. Certain of those foreign collective investment schemes are represented by First Independent Fund Services LTD, which is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (‘FINMA') as Swiss Representative of foreign collective investment schemes pursuant to Art 13 para 2 let. h in the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). Stone Mountain Capital LTD conducts securities related activities in the U.S. pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') Rule 15a-6 Agreement with Crito Capital LLC, a U.S. SEC registered broker-dealer, and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (‘SIPC’) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (‘MSRB').  Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC430515. Its registered office is: One Mayfair Place, Devonshire House, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Partners LLP is registered as Appointed Representative with FRN: 934964 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorised and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom.  Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as limited liability partnership in England & Wales with company registration number: OC439509. Its registered office is: Devonshire House, ​One Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Ventures LLP is incorporated as Appointed Representative with FRN: 967914 of Stone Mountain Capital LTD which is authorized and regulated with FRN: 929802 by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom. Stone Mountain Capital Advisers OÜ is registered as Private Limited Company Osaühing (OÜ) and investment company at: Harju maakond, Kesklinna linnaosa, Järvevana tee 9, 11314, Tallinn, Estonia with company registration number: 17054974. Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. All information in this perspective including research is classified as minor acceptable non-monetary benefits ('MNMB') in accordance with article 11(5)(a) of the MiFID Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 and FCA COBS 2.3A.19. For United Arab Emirates (excluding Dubai International Financial Centre (’DIFC’) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (’ADGM‘)) residents only. This website, any document, and the information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (’UAE‘) and accordingly should not be construed as such. Securities are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who fall under one of the following categories of Exempt Qualified Investors: (1) an investor which is able to manage its investments on its own (unless such person wishes to be classified as a retail investor), namely: (a) the federal government, local governments, and governmental entities, institutions and authorities, or companies wholly-owned by any such entities; (b) foreign governments, their respective entities, institutions and authorities or companies wholly owned by any such entities; (c) international entities and organisations; (d) entities licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (the ’SCA‘) or a regulatory authority that is an ordinary or associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (a “Counterpart Authority”); or (e) any legal person that meets, as at the date of its most recent financial statements, at least two of the following conditions: (i) it has a total assets or balance sheet of AED 75 million; (ii) it has a net annual turnover of AED 150 million; (iii) it has total equity or paid-up capital of AED 7 million; or (2) a natural person licensed by the SCA or a Counterpart Authority to carry out any of the functions related to financial activities or services, (each an “Exempt Qualified Investor”). The Securities have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the SCA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (’DFSA‘), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (’FSRA’) or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE (the ‘Authorities‘). The Authorities assume no liability for any investment made as an Exempt Qualified Investor. This website, any documents and securities are for the use of Exempt Qualified Investors only and should not be given or shown to any other person (other than employees, agents or consultants in connection with a named addressee's consideration thereof). Stone Mountain Capital FZC is registered as Free Zone Company (FZC), a limited liability company in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at: Atrium Tower, Office AT-101, 1st Floor, One UAQ, P.O. Box: 7073, UAQ Free Trade Zone, Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates with company registration number: 6813. Stone Mountain Capital FZC (DMCC Branch) is registered as branch of Stone Mountain Capital FZC and investment company at: Almas Tower, Level 54, Office 5453, P.O. Box: 112911, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with company registration number DMCC-912005. Copyright © 2026 Stone Mountain Capital LTD. All rights reserved. Any business communication, sent by or on behalf of Stone Mountain Capital LTD or one of its affiliated firms or other entities (together "Stone Mountain"), is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected. This e-mail message is for information purposes only, it is not a recommendation, advice, offer or solicitation to buy or sell a product or service nor an official confirmation of any transaction. It is directed at persons who are professionals and is not intended for retail customer use. This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Our LTD accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the limited company. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message and any attachments. By replying to this e-mail, you consent to Stone Mountain monitoring the content of any e-mails you send to or receive from Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is not liable for any opinions expressed by the sender where this is a non-business e-mail. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free. Anyone who communicates with us by email is taken to accept these risks. This message is subject to our terms at our Disclaimer.