Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Elliott Management, Millennium Management, Lawson Products, Inc. (LAWS), Prospect Capital Co. (PSEC), Blueprint Medicines Corp (BPMC), and More

Elliott Management Supports Hess Buyback on Eve of Proxy Deadline (Reuters)
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Elliott Management pulled back from efforts to call for substantial changes at oil company Hess Corp on Thursday on the eve of the deadline to nominate directors for the company’s board. Elliott said it supported Hess’s $1 billion share buyback program announced earlier Thursday and the company’s planned operating review. Elliott, the activist hedge fund led by billionaire Paul Singer, previously called for changes at Hess Corp in a heated 2013 proxy fight. At that time Hess conceded to an agreement that added three Elliott appointees to the board.

$35 Billion Hedge Fund Millennium Management has Hired a Top Trader from Citigroup (Business Insider)
Millennium Management, the $35.7 billion hedge fund giant, has hired a top trader away from Citigroup. Sebastian Ridd, head of program trading and cash trading in the US at Citigroup, left the firm in recent weeks and is headed to the hedge fund, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s the second recent senior departure from Citi’s stock trading department. Last week, global head of cash trading Armando Diaz left the firm. Diaz had joined Citigroup from Millennium in 2016. At Millennium, Ridd’s new role will entail working on the firm’s central risk desk, according to people familiar with the matter. Central risk operations serve as internal clearinghouses of sorts for trading firms to ensure they’re buying, selling, and hedging their trades efficiently.

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China will Win Global Trade War: Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Michael Hintze (AFR.com)
Billionaire hedge fund manager Sir Michael Hintze is betting that China will be the big winner of a global trade war, despite United States President Donald Trump targeting China with his steel tariffs. The 64-year-old founder of the $20 billion asset manager CQS, ranked 24th on The Financial Review Rich List with personal wealth of $1.98 billion, makes a living investing on the fallout from big geopolitical events and says the potential of a global trade war “is causing markets to revalue where they are going”.

Hedge Fund Mojo Is Back With Investor Hopes at Six-Year High (Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) — Hedge funds on the heels of a surprisingly strong performance in 2017 are raising hopes for an encore. Investors expect their managers to return 8.5 percent in 2018, according to a Credit Suisse Group AG survey. That’s the most enthusiasm around the smart money since 2012, when global markets were rallying in recovery mode, benefiting from a massive injection of monetary stimulus. While real-money managers have attempted to curb expectations in a world of normalizing rates and increased volatility, hedge fund outlooks have brightened after surprising on the upside last year.