Ray Dalio Said Last Year Gold was Good Protection because of Trump and North Korea ‘Playing Chicken’ (CNBC)
President Donald Trump’s decision Thursday to cancel the Singapore summit with North Korea leader sent the price of gold higher as global investors sought safety. Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio shared a specific game plan last year during a time period of rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. The investor recommended gold as the best hedge to protect against any negative geopolitical outcomes. “Two confrontational, nationalistic, and militaristic leaders playing chicken with each other, while the world is watching to see which one will be caught bluffing, or if there will be a hellacious war,” Dalio wrote in August 2017 on LinkedIn. “We can also say that if … things go badly, it would seem that gold (more than other safe haven assets like the dollar, yen, and treasuries) would benefit.”
Billionaire Israel ‘Izzy’ Englander Takes a Massive Bet on Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Big Retreat from Micron (MU) (SmarterAnalyst.com)
Israel ‘Izzy’ Englander is the billionaire, chairman, CEO, and founder behind monster hedge fund Millenium Management, a firm managing more than $35 billion in assets. How did Englander kick off the year boasting a whopping net of $5.2 billion to his name, making him the 303rd wealthiest man in the world? Certainly not by falling prey to risks. Englander must size up a profitable opportunity in Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), having ramped up Millenium’s stake in the chip giant to the tune of 1,312% higher.
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Dan Loeb Going Into Fintech Because What Else Is He Gonna Do With All That Nervous Energy? (DealBreaker)
Last year, Dan Loeb bought $3.5 billion worth of Nestlé shares. This was apparently enough to give him one hell of a contact sugar high, because ever since then he’s been a little hyperactive. He’s very happy those Swiss master confectioners have seen the wisdom of his ways, but they need to do it faster faster faster faster now. In the meantime he’s been working on some great scripted drama pitches, spent a little too much time on social media and concocted what we can only assume is the mother of all Bill Ackman burns. Still, there was nervous energy left to burn off, so Dan Loeb got to work on a sizeable SPAC. And what else would a restless and overeager hedge-fund billionaire spend his $400 million blank check on than fintech?
Investor Elliott’s Stake Raises Pressure on Thyssenkrupp CEO (Reuters)
FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) – Activist hedge fund Elliott said on Thursday it would step up pressure on Thyssenkrupp’s (TKAG.DE) leadership to revive the German industrial conglomerate’s fortunes, confirming it had taken a stake of less than 3 percent. The stake increases the influence of interventionist investors on the group, which already counts Sweden’s Cevian as its second-largest shareholder. Cevian has called for a broad strategic review of the sprawling elevators-to-submarines group. “Elliott believes Thyssenkrupp has significant scope for operational improvement which would benefit all stakeholders,” Elliott said in a brief statement, adding it would soon seek to start a constructive dialogue with the group’s boards.
