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George Foulkes calls for inquiry into use of private poll data
- Foulkes one of many lawmakers seeking a probe into polling
U.K. lawmaker George Foulkes said hedge funds use of private polling data to bet on the outcome of the 2016 British referendum was a “scandal,” and called for an investigation into practices revealed in a Bloomberg report.
If “any section of the public is given information which is not publicly available it is a criminal offence,” said Foulkes during a debate in parliament on Tuesday. “Action needs to be taken.”…
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Chinese sovereign notes topped EM Asian returns last quarter
- Indonesian debt most exposed due to currency vulnerability
When it comes to Asian sovereign bonds it’s better being at the epicenter of a U.S.-China trade war than on the fringes of the quake radius.
Chinese and South Korean notes are climbing as the rise in protectionism batters their stock markets, drives a flight to safety and, in China’s case, prompts a more dovish monetary policy. Indonesia, India and the Philippines, by contrast, are more removed from the turbulence but are suffering from currency vulnerability due to current-account deficits…
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Faster balance-sheet unwind adds to pressure on key rate
- Bill-supply surge to challenge FOMC’s monetary-policy control
With all the focus on the shape of the U.S. yield curve recently, fixed-income traders could be forgiven for not concentrating so much on the growing tumult in the fed funds rate…
Forget the Yield Curve. The Debt-Market Action Is in Fed Funds
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Trade tensions and weakening currencies are leading to caution
- The fund may increase investment in developed-market stocks
The slide in emerging markets is spooking Thailand’s $26 billion Government Pension Fund.
The fund will continue to avoid investing in developing-nation equities and bonds because of the risk of increased outflows due to global trade tensions and weakening currencies, according to its Secretary General Vitai Ratanakorn…
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Escalation would weaken wider economy, hurt credit quality
- Smaller banks most vulnerable to any trade war, Ulrich say
An escalation of trade tensions could add to defaults in China’s financial system, which is already in the midst of a deleveraging campaign, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
If U.S. President Donald Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports later this week, there will be spinoff effects on the country’s financial sector, according to Jing Ulrich, JPMorgan’s vice chairman for Asia Pacific. Consumer demand and the wider economy are likely to weaken and that “may translate into worse credit quality down the road,” Ulrich said in a Friday interview in Hong Kong…
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Sales and prices slide while listings pile up on the market
- Buyers don’t want to get burned by overpaying, broker says
In his hunt for an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Hal Walker found the perfect one-bedroom in an Art Deco building across from Central Park. It had languished on the market for almost six months.
Walker bid $30,000 below the $865,000 asking price, then refused the seller’s counteroffer. Yet he’s moving in next week…
Manhattan Homebuyers Demand Bargains, Walk Away—Anything But Overpay
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Hang Seng Index just posted its first quarterly loss in six
- Yuan weakness and Federal Reserve hikes impact financial hub
Valuations have cratered, earnings estimates are down and forecasters are slashing their targets on Hong Kong’s stock market, which has gone from darling to pariah in under half a year.
While investors the world over worry about a tumbling yuan and the Federal Reserve’s plans to lift borrowing costs, the brunt of the impact is increasingly felt in a city that is entwined with both. The Hang Seng Index lost 1.4 percent when markets reopened Tuesday following a long weekend, as another sign that China’s economy may be slowing faster than expected added fuel to the selloff and took multiples back to two-year lows. The benchmark was little changed Wednesday morning…
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Pinpoint’s multi-strategy fund is on 16-month winning streak
- Risk of yuan use in trade battles spurred currency hedging
The escalating trade dispute between China and the U.S. prompted hedge fund manager Pinpoint Asset Management to take money off the table earlier this year. It’s now game-planning for a potential agreement between the world’s top two economies.
“The likely scenario to result from the China-U.S. trade tensions would be a trade deal — largely due to China conceding,” said Jennifer Wong, managing director of investor relations at Pinpoint Asset Management, which manages $3.6 billion in long-short equity and multi-strategy hedge funds focused on Asia…
The financial system is in trouble.
Indeed, by the look of things, we are about to experience a wave of deflation… in years.
Let’s first talk about the $USD.
The $USD has broken above initial resistance (bottom red line) and currently sits just below 95. This is a MAJOR problem for risk assets…
Ignore the Bounce, the Financial System is in Serious Trouble
Hedge Fund Veteran Gives Up on Chinese Stocks
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Kingsmead’s exit from China proves prescient as rout deepens
- Foo’s Kingsmead is increasing investments in Vietnam, Thailand
John Foo, who has managed long-only and hedge funds in Asia for 20 years, has sold out of Chinese stocks for the first time in his career as a money manager.
Foo’s Kingsmead Asset Management ended all bullish and bearish bets on China stocks about two months ago, as trade tensions and domestic credit tightening intensified, he said in an interview. Singapore-based Kingsmead manages about $60 million in an Asia-focused hedge fund and also oversees client money in separate accounts…
As you may have heard, Italy has a new government. Now, Italy has had some governments in the past. But of the roughly 847 governments it’s had since the war, this one is unlike all of the others, because this one doesn’t think too kindly on the European Union. In fact, it thinks that Italy would have been better off if it had never joined the euro, and that if it hadn’t, the country wouldn’t be mired in a decades-long economic slump, and the Azzurri would have made the World Cup.
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Family office said to invest for Gulf royalty gets LJ stake
- Expanding LJ Partnership also backed by Hong Kong’s Peterson
LJ Partnership, a London-based wealth manager armed with money from the Persian Gulf, is targeting global expansion, as rich families and sovereign funds increasingly team up to invest outside of the public markets.
Dilmun, a family office in New York that originated in the Gulf region, this week acquired a 40 percent stake in LJ Partnership, which advises on $15 billion from about 250 clients, including individuals, families and foundations. The deal unites Dilmun with a Hong Kong real estate family that’s expanded into China and the U.K…
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China, Venezuela in talks for $5 bln more in oil investment
- Additional financing projects may be finalized in near term
Venezuela’s distressed oil sector may get some much needed financing from China, Finance Minister Simon Zerpa said after meetings with officials from China Development Bank and China National Petroleum Corporation.
China Development Bank will invest more than $250 million to boost Venezuela oil production in the Orinoco Belt, Zerpa, who is currently in Beijing for bilateral talks, said in a ministry statement…
Venezuela Says China Investing $250 Million to Boost Oil Output
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Slumping yuan, trade war complicate debt cleanup for PBOC
- New governor Yi has kept policy tweaks targeted so far
China’s central bank is caught in a bind, as it seeks to tighten monetary policy for some parts of the economy while loosening it for others.
Already engaged in the mammoth task of wringing bad debts out of China’s $40 trillion-plus financial system, the People’s Bank of China is now attempting to achieve that while simultaneously being asked to bolster flagging growth and rescue falling stock markets…
China’s Central Bank Faces Policy Bind Over Debt, Growth Goals
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Bloomberg Economics’ look at 22 interest-rate setting bodies
- What they’ve done so far and what might be happening in future
Slowly, but surely, central banks around the world are unwinding the easy money they spent a decade injecting into the global economy to fight the fallout from financial crises and recession.
Already this year, the Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate twice and the European Central Bank declared it would cease buying assets in December. Stung by investors, emerging market central banks such as Turkey and Argentina have tightened monetary policy even more aggressively…
Insiders at tech heavyweights led by Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg are selling stock at the fastest pace in six years, cashing in on buoyant equity markets.
Senior executives and directors of Facebook, Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. have disposed of $4.58 billion of stock this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They’re on track to exceed $5 billion for the first six months of 2018, the highest since Facebook went public in 2012 and pushed first-half insider sales to $14.3 billion…
FANG Insiders Are on Track to Sell More Than $5 Billion of Stock
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Long Island nature group’s annual benefit raises $1 million
- Evercore’s Altman, ex-Viacom CEO Dauman among attendees
Just getting to the Hamptons can make you feel like a VIP, but once the chopper has landed, there are so many higher rungs of status to attain — club membership, an invite to that dinner party, employing the private pastry chef whose confections undo the skinniest guests.
On Saturday night, another kind of VIP gathered at the Nature Conservancy on Long Island’s annual benefit — one seeking to protect the most basic pleasures of the East End’s air, water and soil…
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Greg Jensen and Bob Prince each own about 5% of the hedge fund
- Bridgewater is planning to adjust its partnership structure
Ray Dalio is the first to admit that Bridgewater Associates is a tough place to work.
But for those able to navigate the unorthodox culture — defined by Dalio’s mantra of radical transparency — the rewards are worth it…
Atlantic Media’s business news site built for the digital age has turned into a good bit of business itself.
The site, Quartz, which Atlantic Media created in 2012, will be sold to the Japanese financial intelligence company Uzabase for a price between $75 million and $110 million, depending on its performance, according to a statement released on Monday.
The acquisition is the second major international media takeover by a Japanese company in recent years. In 2015, the Japanese media group Nikkei bought The Financial Times, the British business newspaper of salmon-colored pages, for $1.3 billion…
Quartz, Atlantic Media’s Business News Start-Up, Is Sold to Japanese Firm
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Will move staff from lending unit, brokerage chief Araki says
- Seeking to tap Morgan Stanley’s expertise via staff exchanges
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. plans to add 100 private bankers to its securities venture with Morgan Stanley and tap the Wall Street firm’s expertise to expand its business serving rich Japanese.
MUFG will transfer the staff from its lending arm over the next three years, increasing the number of financial advisers at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. to about 280, the brokerage’s Chief Executive Officer Saburo Araki said in an interview. The venture plans to invite Morgan Stanley employees to Tokyo and dispatch staff to New York as part of its effort to improve its offerings to wealthy clients, Araki said…
Ex-Apollo Partner’s Fund Returns 30% in First Year
By · CommentsSachin Khajuria, who left his role as Apollo Global Management LLC partner last year to create his own fund, picked a good time to go it alone.
Khajuria’s Achilles Management LP posted a return of 30 percent in its first year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private fund performance. Khajuria, who leftApollo after seven years at the private-equity firm, is considering seeking outside capital given the fund’s performance, said the person…
Wall Street Is Sharpening Our Nanoseconds
By · CommentsIf people want to trade stocks every hundredth of a nanosecond, why not let them?
Let’s say you and I both want to buy 100 shares of Microsoft Corp. stock. Let’s say that 100 shares are currently listed for sale on the exchange at $100. There are more shares listed for sale at $100.01, $100.02, etc., but the first 100 shares are all that are available at $100.00. We both think the stock will go up, so whoever doesn’t get the 100 shares listed at $100 will have to spend more—at least $100.01—to buy them. Which one of us should get the shares?…
A couple of years ago, Bridgewater Associates’ top two guys were embroiled in a little spat about who was the bigger liar, quite a serious allegation at a firm that prizes honesty and radical transparencyabove all else, at least internally. Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio suspected that his no. 2, Greg Jensen, may have been saying some nasty things about him behind his back, both dangerous and unnecessary in Westport, the former because everything is on tape and the latter because Dalio loves being told he sucks to his face, preferably in front of an audience. Jensen countered that Dalio was being something less than honest and transparent about his plan to stop micromanaging and let the Greg Jensens of the world have their moment…
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Joel Tucker faces federal charges of bankruptcy fraud
- Allegedly made $7.3 million selling data to debt collectors
A one-time payday-loan mogul was indicted on federal charges that he made up millions of fake debts and sold them to bill collectors, victimizing people across the country.
Joel Tucker, 49, was able to pull off the scheme because he already had his victims’ personal information from loan applications, according to an indictment unsealed June 29 in Kansas City, Missouri. But many of those people never took loans, let alone failed to pay them back, and Tucker didn’t own the loans anyway, prosecutors said. From 2014 to 2016, he earned $7.3 million from packaging and selling the information to collectors, they said…
Remember Jeffrey Pierce? The Snow Park Capital founder and CEO who got sued back in May for metaphorically hitting on his former CFO before literally tackling her? The guy who denied the whole thing and then did what so many guys in his position do these days and dropped some version of “I can prove I’m innocent, more to come!”?
Welp, unlike almost every single one of the guys that have said they could prove they didn’t get handsy or “tackle-y” with a co-worker, it now seems that Pierce meant it…and how:
Accused Hedge Fund CFO Tackler Files Countersuit Claiming Hedge Fund CFO Embezzlement
Will Americans embrace a new party founded by bankers?
Eric Grossman doesn’t look like he would want to do anything drastic. The top lawyer at Morgan Stanley is a 51-year-old homeowner in the New York suburbs with twin sons and a seat on the firm’s management committee. He’s another man in a power suit in a midtown Manhattan bank…
A Morgan Stanley Star Wants You to Back His Political Movement
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Malaysia summons Riza Aziz, former PM Najib Razak’s stepson
- Riza’s Red Granite Pictures reached settlement in U.S. suit
Malaysian investigators are set to question the producer of “The Wolf of Wall Street” as they step up efforts to recoup funds potentially lost through 1MDB.
Riza Aziz, co-founder of Red Granite Pictures Inc. and stepson of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, has been summoned to a Tuesday hearing at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, according to state news agency Bernama. An MACC spokesperson confirmed the report. In the U.S., his production company had reached a $60 million settlement in a suit that alleged the movie was funded by money siphoned from 1MDB…
If it sells for near the $43.5 million asking price, the waterfront property would far surpass the current record, set by pop star Taylor Swift’s $17.75-million purchase in 2013
In Newport, R.I., an estate on over 45 oceanfront acres is returning to market for $43.5 million, making the property the state’s priciest listing.
The estate was listed in 2013 for $45 million, then taken off the market about two years later. If it sells for anywhere near its asking price, it would far surpass the current record, which was set by pop star Taylor Swift’s $17.75-million purchase in 2013, according to Jim Michalove of Seaboard Properties, one of the agents involved in that transaction…
Hamptons Surf Home Sells for Almost $23 Million
By · CommentsThe waterfront home is the most expensive transaction in Montauk, N.Y., this year. Designed by Surf Lodge decorator Robert McKinley, it went for more than double its 2012 sale price
A Montauk, N.Y., waterfront home with a vintage beach look has sold for $22.8 million.
The home is the most expensive to have sold in Montauk this year, according to a spokesman for Sotheby’s International Realty, which represented the seller. He said the deal is further evidence that Montauk is catching up with its posh neighbors Southampton and East Hampton as a destination that can command ultrahigh price tags. Seller’s agent Rylan Jacka said a new generation of buyers is flocking to Montauk for its lower-key vibe and surfing.
Tests produce winners and losers. The one that the government imposed on the nation’s biggest banks this week was no exception.
The Federal Reserve on Thursday released results of the second round of its annual stress tests, which assess whether large banks have enough capital to make it through an economic crisis, and whether they have the systems and plans in place to deal with the related upheaval. When banks fail the tests, the Fed may limit how much money they can pay out to shareholders or, in the case of the American operations of foreign banks, how much they can pay to their parent companies…
The nation’s largest banks, back to making big profits a decade after the financial crisis, are set to pay out billions of dollars to their shareholders.
The banks’ regulator, the Federal Reserve, signed off on the payments after the banks passed annual stress tests, whose results came out on Thursday. The Fed carries out the tests, which were introduced after the crisis, to assess how big banks would fare in a deep recession…
Banks Are Paying Out Billions to Shareholders. We Put the Numbers in Context.
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Gasoline hikes will cause consumers pain, but not the economy
- Tax cut “compensates” upper-income earners for high gas prices
The average American household will have $440 less to spend this year due to rising pump prices, putting at risk one-third of the windfall they got from tax cuts.
Strong oil prices drove the cost of U.S. gasoline to the highest level in more than three years last month, according to AAA, and pump prices are now 27 percent higher than they were a year ago…
Higher Oil Prices Will Cost the Average American Family $440 This Year
Australian housing prices fell for a ninth straight month in June as tighter credit rules weigh on buyers.
Property values fell 0.2 percent nationally last month, to be 1.3 percent lower than their September peak, according to CoreLogic Inc. data released Monday. The decline was led by the biggest cities, with prices falling 0.3 percent in Sydney and 0.4 percent in Melbourne…
Australia Property Prices Fall for Ninth Month on Tighter Credit
Carlyle Group LP co-founder David Rubenstein sees a cautious investment climate, but no clear signs of an impending recession.
With increasing competition for deals and high valuations, investors are willing to take smaller gains, Rubenstein said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Private equity is still more attractive than other asset classes, he said. The industry is on a hot fundraising streak, with 2017 bringing in a record $453 billion, according to Preqin…
Carlyle’s Rubenstein Says He’s Cautious on Investment Climate
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Greenlight’s main hedge fund posts 7.7% decline for June
- Value-oriented stock-picker still seeking to reverse slump
David Einhorn’s main hedge fund at Greenlight Capital fell 7.7 percent in June, bringing losses for the first half of this year to almost 19 percent, according to a client update seen by Bloomberg.
His value-investing strategy fell well short of U.S. stock market returns, as the S&P 500 Index has handed investors about 2.6 percent this year, including reinvested dividends. The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, declined about 1 percent in the period. Hedge Fund Research Inc.’s Fundamental Value Index, which measures value strategies among equity hedge funds, gained 1.8 percent in the first five months of the year…
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Private residential prices climb 3.4%, preliminary data show
- Data show second consecutive quarter of strong price growth
Singapore private home prices surged the most since 2010 as the property market extends its recovery from a four-year slump.
An index tracking private residential prices jumped 3.4 percent in the three months ended June 30, according to a flash estimate from the Urban Redevelopment Authority. That’s the biggest quarter-on-quarter gain since the three months ended June 2010, and builds on a 3.1 percent gain the previous quarter…
Wall Street Left Reeling as 2018 Upends Almost Every Bet
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Favorite emerging-market stocks, bonds crumble under dollar
- ‘People woke up to a different world,’ says Aberdeen’s Athey
The half that began with “melt-up” euphoria ended with melt-down fear.
Investors breezed into 2018 expecting to pick up easy returns from steadily rising asset prices. Instead, they’re nursing losses on bets that had delivered the biggest gains from a decade’s worth of buoyant liquidity.
Emerging economies began the year as a market darling only to be toppled by a surge in the dollar and rising political risks. A brewing trade war has dashed expectations synchronized global growth would keep pumping up equities. China, long seen as the world’s growth engine, slipped into a bear market…
If You Steal It, the Art Vigilante Will Find You
By · CommentsUsing a secret database of tens of thousands of photos, Christos Tsirogiannis is fighting to prevent auction houses from selling looted art.
For days, Christos Tsirogiannis had been hitting refresh on his laptop, waiting for a chance to snatch ancient artifacts from one of the world’s biggest auctioneers. At the dining room table of his tidy house on a quiet street in Cambridge, England, the 45-year-old archaeologist was stalking Christie’s website, where the catalog for an upcoming antiquities auction in New York would soon be posted. It was important to his vigilante mission that he see the lots quickly. Tsirogiannis had work to do to repeat previous exploits in which he’d cost Christie’s and rivals Sotheby’s and Bonhams millions of dollars in sales—and the sale was in less than a month…
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State race results will start from 7 p.m. in New York
- The Mexican peso will be among key ways to monitor reaction
Investors seeking to wager on the fallout from Mexico’s Sunday night presidential election won’t have to wait for local markets to open.
When results from state races start rolling in at about 7 p.m. New York time, to be followed two hours later by early presidential results, the peso will already be trading during Asia’s morning. It may be the most important asset to watch given its robust liquidity…
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Timefolio Asset hedge funds attracted $1.3 billion in 2 years
- Main fund is long-short strategy focused on Korean equities
A hedge fund firm is causing a stir among investors in South Korea, delivering strong returns even as the stock market declines and attracting a flood of money.
Timefolio Asset Management has gained almost 14 percent this year in its main fund, which combines a long-short strategy focused on South Korean equities and alternative investments, Joosang Lee, a managing director at the firm, said in an interview in Seoul. The country’s benchmark Kospi index is down 5.7 percent in 2018…
Low down payment mortgages are creeping their way back into the market like a cat sneaking up on an unsuspecting mouse. The only difference here is that the mouse is a million dollar crap shack with a 30-year mortgage attached to it. People forget that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the massive Government Sponsored Entities were nationalized U.S.S.R. style during the Great Recession. Now that times are good all caution is being thrown into the wind and we are setting up the stage for Irrational Exuberance Part II. The U.S. economy is built for boom and bust cycles. Massive credit expansion is occurring and while people are working, their dollars are not stretching as far as they would expect. In San Francisco, you are now considered “low income” if you make less than $117,000 a year. That makes sense when a standard home sells for $1.5 million. So now we have Freddie Mac attempting to push 3% down mortgages on a much larger scale since many people are priced out. What can possibly go wrong?…
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African bonds and stocks have underperformed emerging markets
- South African currency heads for worst quarter since 2011
The emerging-market sell-off is taking a heavy toll on Africa.
The continent’s bonds and stocks are being hammered more than those in most other regions amid a rout that’s wiped over $1 trillion off developing nations’ equity markets this quarter and sapped confidence from Brazil to China…
Market Rout Sends African Assets From the Rand to Bonds Reeling
Five Dead in Shooting at Maryland Newspaper Office
By · CommentsPolice confirm a suspect is in custody after shooting at Capital Gazette in Annapolis; man by same name was previously involved in a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper
ANNAPOLIS, Md.—A man wielding a shotgun killed five people and wounded two others at a newspaper office here in what authorities called a targeted attack Thursday afternoon.
The suspect was in custody and being interviewed by authorities Thursday night. Authorities have identified him as Jarrod Ramos, a 38-year-old Maryland man, according to law-enforcement officials…
Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, has long been tightly controlled by its founder, Ray Dalio, and his top two lieutenants. That is about to change.
In the coming months, the firm will reshape itself, becoming a partnership that will give its top executives significantly more say in how the $150 billion fund is run…
Bridgewater Plans to Become a Partnership as Ray Dalio Takes a Step Back
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Shanghai shares have fallen 13% in June in dollar terms
- MSCI added Chinese equities to benchmark gauges this month
Global passive funds are buying China’s domestically traded shares for the first time and it’s not going well.
Stocks in Shanghai have tumbled 13 percent in dollar terms since MSCI Inc. added so-called A shares at the start of the month. Only equities in Argentina and Namibia have performed worse. Worries about a slowing economy, tightening liquidity and possible trade war are plaguing the world’s second-largest stock market, while a suddenly tumbling currency is only adding to foreign investor losses…
Contract to build nine anti-submarine frigates goes to BAE, beating out Italy’s Fincantieri and Spain’s Navantia
CANBERRA, Australia—BAE Systems has won a $26 billion contest to build nine anti-submarine frigates for Australia’s navy, as the U.S. ally seeks to bolster its navy against an Asian arms race and more assertive China.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will announce Friday that a variation of the British arms maker’s Type 26 frigate has been chosen over competitors from Italy’s Fincantieri and Spain’s Navantia SA. The frigates will be built in Australia by local state-owned ASC Shipbuilding, which will become a BAE…
Industries, Looking for Efficiency, Turn to Blockchains
By · CommentsIf some financial institutions had used blockchains before the last recession, we may not have had one. After all, banks sometimes didn’t know which company’s books held bad mortgages, and a blockchain is essentially a single time-stamped ledger transparent to all its users.
Since that time, companies in a wide variety of industries, such as health care, government, food, supply chain management and trade finance, have begun exploring blockchain technology. The problems they’re trying to solve mostly come down to inefficiency and fraud…
Industries, Looking for Efficiency, Turn to Blockchains
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Attorney general, FTC sue two companies over phony debt
- ‘They need to put people in jail because it’s so lucrative’
After a debt collector threatened his wife, Rhode Island salesman Andrew Therrien spent years hunting for payback. Now regulators may give him some satisfaction.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood sued debt broker Hylan Asset Management LLC and collection agency Worldwide Processing Group LLC, alleging they were involved in a phantom debt scheme in which people across the country were harassed into making payments on made-up loans…
New York Catches Up to Some of Phantom Debt Vigilante’s Targets
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dinged in Fed Stress Tests
By · CommentsThe two banks can’t raise shareholder payouts beyond recent levels after falling below minimum ratios on exams
Regulators cleared most of the largest U.S. banks to increase their dividends and share buybacks, but forced two Wall Street titans, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, to freeze those payouts at recent levels.
Thirty-four of the nation’s 35 biggest lenders passed the second round of the Federal Reserve’s annual “stress tests,” which gauge whether banks are healthy enough to keep lending through an economic meltdown. They can now buy back shares and pay dividends, rewarding investors who have been eager to share in…
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Selloff forces EM central banks to raise interest rates
- Currencies have struggled to find a floor despite rate moves
Central banks in emerging economies are losing the battle with markets as their efforts to shield their currencies struggle for traction, suggesting policy makers have more work to do.
Rising U.S. interest rates, the strong dollar, higher oil prices, China’s market and economic wobbles and fears of a global trade war are conspiring to pressure emerging-market currencies. Here’s a look at how markets have responded to recent central bank moves:
Emerging-Market Central Banks Are Losing Battle Against Traders
Documents unsealed this week show that Paul Manafort and his wife acknowledged on a 2010 tax return that they owed $10 million to a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin.
The disclosure, contained in partially unredacted versions of search warrant applications filed last year in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, offers fresh details of Manafort’s dealings with the oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, and his business interests in Ukraine…
Manafort Reported $10 Million Loan From Russian Oligarch in 2010
Now is supposed to be a good time to be a bank.
The largest lenders in the United States are enjoying ballooning profits. The Trump administration has removed rules on banks, and more deregulation is likely to come. The economy is in one of its strongest patches since the financial crisis, and the Federal Reserve is raising rates.
But it would be hard to tell all that by looking at their share prices over the last two weeks…
Why Have Bank Stocks Had Such a Bad Two Weeks? A Flattening Yield Curve
Private Equity Is Pouring Money Into a Dental Empire
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Heartland has built dental empire of more than 800 practices
- CEO Richard Workman attracted wrath for transforming industry
One of the richest dentists in the U.S. hasn’t seen a patient for more than two decades.
Richard Workman, 63, stopped practicing in 1996 to build his company, Heartland Dental, into a kind of Walgreens for the dentistry business. He scooped up one dentist office after another, and today Heartland has more than 800 in 36 states, making it the largest dental management company in the country…
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More than 20 banks announce higher dividends after stress test
- Goldman, Morgan Stanley freeze total payouts at earlier levels
Tougher Federal Reserve stress tests forced some of Wall Street’s top banks to rein in ambitious plans for pumping out cash to shareholders. But even those diminished returns spell a record payout to investors.
As the central bank’s annual stress tests ended Thursday, the nation’s four largest lenders — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. — said they will distribute more than $110 billion through dividends and stock buybacks, sending their stocks higher in late trading. Even shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley — which the Fed blocked from boosting total payouts — held steady…
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Governor says bank well placed to manage rate move up or down
- ASB sees growing risk that next rate move ‘may be a cut’
New Zealand’s central bank held interest rates at a record low but signaled it is prepared to cut them if needed as economic growth slows and inflation remains below target.
“The official cash rate will remain at 1.75 percent for now,” Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr said in a statement Thursday in Wellington. “However, we are well positioned to manage change in either direction — up or down — as necessary.”…
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Authorities urged to take steps to avert another stock rout
- Leveraged share purchases reach levels last seen in 2015
A leaked report from a Chinese government-backed think tank has warned of a potential “financial panic” in the world’s second-largest economy, a sign that some members of the nation’s policy elite are growing concerned as market turbulence and trade tensions increase.
Of the 94 REIT directors newly elected during the spring proxy season, 49—or 52%—are women
The real-estate investment trust sector has named a record number of women to board positions in 2018, a sign that this mostly male-dominated industry is reacting to pressure on American corporations to diversify.
Of the 94 REIT directors newly elected during the spring proxy season, 49—or 52%—are women, according to a study by Ferguson Partners, a professional services firm specializing in executive and board recruitment. It was the first time men comprised less than the majority of the new directors, Ferguson Partners said…
In the latest round of hedge fund closures, Jack Franke and Eric Lee, who once worked for billionaire Stan Druckenmiller, are liquidating their firm after about two years in business, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Their Blockhouse Capital Management oversaw about $541 million including borrowed money as of the end of last year, a regulatory filing shows…
Blockhouse Hedge Fund Is Shuttering After Two Years of Trading
Company says concerns about rising interest rates and construction costs have been offset by low unemployment and increasing wages
Lennar Corp. said strong demand for new homes and higher selling prices drove earnings growth in the most recent quarter, as the nation’s largest home builder reported it has so far shaken off concerns about rising interest rates and construction costs.
Lennar executives worked to assure analysts on its earnings call Tuesday that it wasn’t seeing declining demand in the market, noting that customers are still able to afford homes and that the U.S. economy and job growth have been good…
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As much as 35 percent will be invested in private companies
- D1 Capital is said to earmark $1 billion for Viking investors
For Dan Sundheim, who starts trading outside capital at his new hedge fund in mid-July, it might as well be 2007.
That’s when hedge fund managers dominated Wall Street. They could charge high fees, impose long lock-ups on capital and afford to be discerning about which investors they allowed into their funds. Then came the financial crisis and a decade of low returns and client defections. Most startups barely raised any money…