Steven Spielberg and George Soros Stock Senate Democratic Super-PAC (Bloomberg)
George Soros, Laurene Powell Jobs and Steven Spielberg are among the biggest donors to the campaign to keep Harry Reid the Senate majority leader. Soros and Powell Jobs (Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs’s widow) each gave $500,000, and Spielberg donated $250,000 last month to Senate Majority PAC, a super-PAC run by the Nevada senator’s political advisers to defend the Democrats’ 55-45 Senate majority. It’s the main Democratic outside group trying to block Republicans from making a net gain of six seats. Ian Cumming, the former CEO of Leucadia National Corporation, and the Arkansas-based HFNWA, LLC each gave $1 million to Senate Majority PAC last month. The American Federation of Teachers contributed $850,000.
Hedge funds climb market wall of worry (FT)
Bull markets, as the saying goes, must always drag themselves up a wall of worry. For hedge funds, many of which have been asking how long the calm in markets can last, that wall must now appear to have grown several metres. Last week saw the return of market swings reminiscent of the deepest days of the financial crisis, with the 10 year US Treasury bond gyrating wildly in just a matter of minutes. While Treasury yields, which move inversely to their prices, eventually rose back to close to where they started the day, the sharp move has compelled some fund managers to reappraise their view on where markets are heading.
Danish pension funds now required to report hedge fund use (PIOnline)
Denmark’s Financial Supervisory Authority will require pension funds to submit quarterly reports on their alternative investments to track their use of hedge funds, exposure to private equity and infrastructure projects. The decision follows pension funds’ failures to account adequately for risks in their investment strategies, according to the FSA. The regulatory clampdown of the $500 billion industry comes as Denmark, home to the world’s top-ranked pension system, deals with risks it says are inherent to a system due to be introduced across the European Union in 2016.
Argentina Hedge Fund Startup Leverages Rich Client Money (FA-Mag)
Three years ago, Daniel Melhem was kicked off a government delegation from Argentina that was trying to drum up investors from the Middle East after he said no one would be interested. Now, the 44-year-old investment adviser says he’s gotten so many phone calls from clients asking about Argentina in the past year he decided to start a hedge fund dedicated to buying the nation’s securities. Melhem, who headed Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)’s private-wealth management for Brazil, Argentina and Chile before founding Knightsbridge Partners Ltd. in 2003, plans to raise $150 million from 10 to 20 wealthy families from Latin America, the Middle East and Europe and start investing before year-end.
Tom Steyer’s flood of campaign money hits $55 million to NextGen (SunlightFoundation)
Environmentally-minded billionaire Tom Steyer gave another $15 million to his NextGen Climate Action in September, his outside spending group whose $20 million in campaign spending last month made it September’s No. 1 spender. The donation also brings Steyer’s super PAC contributions for the 2014 cycle to an eye-popping $55.9 million. An analysis of the latest campaign filings using Sunlight’s Real-Time Federal Campaign Finance tracker provides a revealing view of how the spenders we know about are positioned in the final weeks before the election.
