Torsten Slok
Chief economist at Apollo Global Management.
Apollo Global Management's chief economist, whose blunt line on Oracle's widening credit-default-swap spread, 'the trend is certainly not your friend', delivered to CNBC on 26 July 2026, is his own framing rather than the firm's.
Last refreshed: 27 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why is Oracle's default-risk pricing now flashing 2008-level warning signs?
Timeline for Torsten Slok
Oracle's credit spread hits 2008 level
AI: Jobs, Power & MoneyBackground
Torsten Slok is chief economist at Apollo Global Management, a US alternative-asset manager, and a closely watched voice on credit-market risk.
His commentary regularly connects corporate disclosures, credit-market pricing and macroeconomic data, translating shifts in debt markets into warnings that reach beyond specialist fixed-income audiences.
His July 2026 comments on Oracle placed a single company's credit spread inside a wider argument about AI capital spending and default risk across the technology-lending sector.
Slok flags Oracle's 2008-level spread
Torsten Slok is the analyst behind the sharpest line in the sector's credit-risk debate: 'the trend is certainly not your friend', his verdict on Oracle's borrowing costs delivered to CNBC on 26 July 2026, days after Oracle's credit-default-swap spread climbed to its highest point since 2008 .
As chief economist at Apollo, a firm that trades credit risk directly, Slok's personal framing carries weight beyond a standard house view: he tied that spread widening explicitly to Oracle's own disclosure to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that AI adoption had driven its workforce reductions, a connection he drew himself rather than leaving implicit.