Market Sell-off After Fed’s Sunday Rate Cut is ‘Totally Understandable,’ Scaramucci Says (CNBC)
It’s “totally understandable” why U.S. stock futures plunged after the Federal Reserve’s latest moves to counter the economic hit from the coronavirus outbreak, said Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund investor who briefly served as President Donald Trump’s White House communications chief. “The reason why markets are selling off right now is we have a ton of information about the virus, but a very, very little amount of understanding,” Scaramucci, founder and co-managing partner of Skybridge Capital, told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Monday.
British Hedge Fund Lansdowne Racks Up Multiple Losses Across Funds: Data (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) – Lansdowne Partners, one of Britain’s best-known hedge fund firms, lost money on several of its strategies between the start of the year and early March amid the coronavirus market slump, according to data compiled by HSBC. Lansdowne’s $3.9 bln Developed Markets Fund lost 1.3% in the month to March 6 and 12.1% for the year-to-date, according to HSBC’s data, which was seen by Reuters.
Ray Dalio was Blindsided by the Coronavirus Market Rout, and Now His Flagship Fund is Down 20% this Year (Business Insider)
Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio was caught off guard by the coronavirus-fueled market sell-off this month, he told the Financial Times. The founder of Bridgewater Associates – the world’s largest hedge fund with about $160 billion in assets under management – didn’t escape stocks, commodities, and other assets before they tumbled in recent days. “We did not know how to navigate the virus and chose not to because we didn’t think we had an edge in trading it,” Dalio told the Financial Times on Sundau. “So, we stayed in our positions and in retrospect we should have cut all risk.”
Pressmaster/Shutterstock.com
Hedge Fund Performance Update: February 2020 (Preqin.com)
The Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Funds benchmark suffered significant losses (-2.21%) in February, compared to January’s modest gains (+0.62%), caused by the global outbreak of COVID-19 and falling oil prices. Funds of all top-level strategies and currencies, and of all sizes, generated negative returns; CTAs were least affected, returning -0.27%. This factsheet presents the hedge fund performance benchmarks for February 2020. Plus, the 12-month and three-year annualized return figures for all top-level strategies, structures, denominations, and size classifications.
Hedge Fund Manager: I’m Buying Stocks Because Investors are Misinterpreting Coronavirus Hysteria (CNBC)
Hedge fund manager Ricky Sandler told CNBC on Monday that he’s buying equities because the stock market’s reaction to the coronavirus has been too extreme. “I think the people are totally missing what is happening here. Every new headline, every new hysteria is making people more nervous and it’s actually very, very positive,” the CEO of Eminence Capital said on “Halftime Report.” “It’s all helping to contain the problem.”
Othania’s Tiger Goes on the Defensive (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Following the turbulent markets in the last week of February, the systematic model designed by Danish asset manager Othania – called Tiger – decided to switch investments out of equities into bonds. The reallocation helped Othania’s two funds – Othania Invest and Investin Othania Etisk Formuevækst – navigate this month’s volatile markets quite well, with both funds in positive territory month-to-date. Othania’s investment model uses indicators on economic activity, interest rates and stock market movements to assess the risk of equity exposure for the month ahead. On a monthly basis, depending on the degree of risk ahead, the Tiger model takes a binary decision of allocating capital either to equity or bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Sacramento County Employees Invests $45 million in Event-Driven Hedge Fund (Pensions&Investments)
Sacramento County (Calif.) Employees’ Retirement Association made a direct hedge fund investment of $45 million in BlackRock Event Driven Equity Fund, said Steve Davis, chief investment officer. The $10.4 billion pension fund’s investment in the market-neutral fund is allocated to its diversifying absolute-return asset class, Mr. Davis said. Funding comes from a partial redemption from Grosvenor SC Absolute Return Fund, Series B, a diversifying hedge fund managed by Grosvenor Capital Management, leaving it with about $109 million.
Boaz Weinstein’s Saba Scored Record Profits on Market Plunge: Letter (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Boaz Weinstein’s main Saba Capital Management LP hedge fund reported a 33% gain in March through Friday amid coronavirus-led market turmoil, bringing its year to date gain to 67%, according to a note sent to clients seen by Reuters. Saba’s Tail Fund, which promises doomsday market insurance through bets that perform when markets spiral, did even better: a 99% rise in March and a 175% gain for the year through Friday, the letter said.
Credit Hedge Fund Chenavari Eyes “Agile and Opportunistic” Positions Amid Further Dislocation (Hedge Week)
Chenavari Investment Managers, the London-based credit-focused hedge fund, is building “agile and opportunistic” positions for yet further dislocation in global markets, going long in synthetic instruments – such as synthetic bonds and credit default swaps – and shorting cash assets, predominantly cash bonds. In a letter to investors on Monday morning, Chenavari observed how value is reconstituting following last week’s market turmoil, with credit spreads in the iTraxx Crossover 5 year CDS index having gapped out some 300 basis points since the start of the year. Meanwhile, technicals will be “king” in the short-term, the manager said.
Aurora Founder, Former CEO Terry Booth To Sell 12.16M Shares (Benzinga)
Aurora Cannabis Inc. (ACB) announced Monday that founder and former CEO Terry Booth has disclosed the sale of around 12.16 million shares of the company. The sale of Aurora’s shares is linked with Booth’s resignation from the position of CEO last month, the cannabis company said. “The board and management remain focused on the plan we laid out in February and we are progressing as planned toward appropriate capital allocation, balance sheet strength, and profitability. We look forward to updating the markets on our next quarterly earnings call,” Executive Chairman and Interim CEO Michael Singer said in a statement.
Chimerix Inc (CMRX) CEO Michael A. Sherman Bought $105,843 of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Chimerix Inc., Michael A. Sherman, bought 72,995 shares of CMRX on 03/12/2020 at an average price of $1.45 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $105,843. Chimerix Inc is a biopharmaceutical company which focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel, oral antivirals in areas of unmet medical needs. Chimerix Inc has a market cap of $89.520 million; its shares were traded at around $1.45 with and P/S ratio of 6.68.
The Vice Chairman of Raymond James Financial (NYSE: RJF) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Vice Chairman of Raymond James Financial (RJF), Francis Godbold, bought shares of RJF for $768.5K. This recent transaction increases Francis Godbold’s holding in the company by 8.4% to a total of $11.66 million. Following Francis Godbold’s last RJF Buy transaction on March 11, 2020, the stock climbed by 4.9%. Based on Raymond James Financial’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $2.07 billion and quarterly net profit of $267 million.
