Hedge fund manager Chanos wary of Japan PM’s plans to rearm (Reuters)
Prominent hedge fund manager Jim Chanos on Friday called Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the most dangerous figure in Asia, citing his plans to rearm his country. Abe could destabilize the region more than what any Chinese leaders are doing, said Chanos, who heads Kynikos Associates, at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference here. He was responding when asked to name the most dangerous person in Asia.
Soros cuts bearish bet on S&P 500, adds Russell 2000 bear call (MarketWatch)
While it wasn’t one of its biggest bets, noteworthy among the 13Fs released Thursday was news that Soros Fund Management pulled back on a bearish bet on the S&P 500 in the first quarter of this year. The firm founded by George Soros decreased a put position on the S&P 500 ETF by 77% from the fourth quarter of 2013. A put position gives the holder the right to sell a security at a set price for a certain period of time. Such a bet usually implies that the investor believes that security will decline.
Hedge fund assets reach new all-time high of USD2.938trn (HedgeWeek)
Hedge fund assets under management have reached an all-time high of USD2.938 trillion, according to eVestment’s April 2014 Hedge Fund Asset Flows Report. The previous high was set in Q2 2008 just a few months before the height of the financial crisis. Investors allocated USD17.9 billion to hedge funds in April, the third consecutive month of elevated inflows. Investors have added USD68.4 billion through April, far surpassing inflows from 2013 and 2012 for the same time frame.
FHFA’s Watt Says He’s Not Worried About Fannie-Freddie Investors (Bloomberg)
The regulator of Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac said it isn’t his job to worry about the two companies’ shareholders. “I don’t lay awake at night worrying about what’s fair to the shareholders,” Melvin L. Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said in an interview taped yesterday for C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” television program. “My responsibility is to think about how can I do what is responsible for the taxpayers.” Investors including Bruce Berkowitz’s Fairholme Capital Management and hedge fund Perry Capital LLC have been pushing the U.S. to return the companies to private ownership. They’ve also challenged an arrangement in which the FHFA and the Treasury Department require the companies to pay 100 percent of their profits to the U.S.
Trian Fund Cuts Stake in Wendy’s by About 22% (Wall Street Journal)
Trian Fund Management LP cut its stake in The Wendy’s Co (NASDAQ:WEN) by about 22% in the first quarter, according to a filing released Thursday. The activist investment fund sold more than 18 million shares of the burger and fast-food chain, where Trian co-founder Nelson Peltz serves as chairman of the board and fellow founders Ed Garden and Peter May are also on the board. Trian continued to own 64.8 million shares of Wendy’s, a 17.7% stake, as of the end of March, according to the filing.
