Gold prices are in meltdown mode today and gold stocks are also getting crushed. The precious metal fell below $1,300 an ounce, the lowest level in two years. Let’s do a quick scoreboard check of closely-followed billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, who has been long a bunch of gold stocks. Here’s a rundown of his gold stock holdings based on the most recent securities filing for the first quarter ended March 31. Keep in mind, it is possible that he could have pared back some of his stakes in these stocks.
Japan Tobacco Shareholders Reject U.K. Hedge Fund’s Proposals (WSJ)
Shareholders of Japan Tobacco Inc. 2914.TO -0.44% Friday voted down a set of proposals by a U.K.-based activist hedge fund, including a sharp dividend hike. The company, known as JT, has already expressed opposition to the proposals put forward by The Children’s Investment Fund, a minority shareholder. These proposals were for a hike in the dividend payout for this fiscal year through March to Y150 per share, instead of a payment of Y68 per share the company is planning to distribute, a buyback of Y350 billion worth of common shares by June 2014, and the cancellation of JT’s holdings of its own shares.
Hedge fund exits rise in June as investors reposition at mid-year (Reuters)
Requests to pull money out of hedge funds rose in June as investors used the mid-year point to review their portfolios and release cash to spend elsewhere. Hedge fund administrator SS&C GlobeOp’s forward redemption indicator, a monthly snapshot of clients giving notice to withdraw their cash which shows the percentage of assets under administration, stood at 3.88 percent in June, a moderate rise from May’s measurement of 3.77 percent.
Fund Star from Crisis Looks to Raise Money Again (WSJ)
Michael Burry, the Bay Area hedge-fund manager who gained attention for his profitable bet against subprime mortgages, is looking to raise between $100 million to $200 million from investors after returning outside money in his Scion Capital in 2008, according to a person briefed on the matter. After gains of several hundred million dollars in 2007 from buying insurance on subprime-mortgage debt, Scion Capital managed about $1 billion. Burry, a medical doctor who left his neurology residency to become a full-time investor, declined to comment Thursday.
Marc Faber: More S&P downside, commodities ‘horrible’…except gold (MarketWatch)
With the S&P 500 SPX -2.50% down 2.4% after the Fed laid it on the line, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to see the bears out there growling away. Noted contrarian Marc Faber told CNBC on Thursday that he sees further downside for the S&P. And that something else he says, is the fact that interest rates have been rising for a year, noting that yields on 10- 10_YEAR -0.99% and 30-year 30_YEAR -1.17% Treasury notes bottomed out last July, and interest rates have been trending up since.
OMG! Carl joins the Twitter age (NYPost)
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who famously tried and failed at blogging a few years ago, is once again going digital — he’s joined Twitter. The famous corporate activist shot off his first tweet yesterday from his handle @carl_c_icahn: “Twitter is great. I like it almost as much as I like Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL).” The 77-year-old head of Icahn enterprises was referring to his recent efforts to stand in the way of founder Michael Dell’s deal to buy the computer maker for $13.65 a share. In the late afternoon, Icahn, with just one tweet, had amassed 5,342 followers. He was following no one.
Feelin’ lucky, punk$? (NYPost)
Hedge-fund honcho Steve Cohen is suddenly looking pretty smart. Just months after Cohen’s SAC Capital agreed to a $602 million SEC settlement over insider trading — without admitting any wrongdoing — the SEC is talking tough. Mary Jo White, the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, plans to hold a town hall meeting to discuss when to require some defendants to admit to wrongdoing as a condition of settling the commission’s enforcement actions, The Post has learned.
