Salient to Investors: Private equity companies and venture capitalists reduced renewable-energy investment to the lowest since 2006. Vinod Khosla at Khosla Ventures said all the fashionable VCs have exited, and the number of new businesses is smaller. Ethan Zindler at New Energy Finance said venture investors in early stages do
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Morgan Stanley said leverage among equity managers climbed to the highest level to start any year since at least 2004. Margin debt at NYSE firms rose in November to the highest since February 2008. James Dunigan at PNC Wealth Mgmt said leverage is increasing among hedge-funds. Gross leverage at hedge
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds et al trimmed net-long positions to the lowest since June 19, and gold holdings fell to the lowest since August. The S&P GSCI index of 24 raw materials has climbed for 5 consecutive weeks. Quincy Krosby at Prudential Financial said data out of China and the US shows we are
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Goldman Sachs expects hedge funds to return an average of 4 percent to 5 percent over the next 5 years amid low interest rates. Hedge funds trailed global stocks in 2012 for the fifth time in 7 years: a 6.7 percent gain versus 17 percent for the MSCI All-Country
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Quant funds lost 3.4 percent last year versus a loss of 7.9 percent in 2011. Quants made money during the financial crisis when other hedge funds didn’t. BarclayHedge said investors poured $108.2 billion into the pools since the end of 2008 to $266 billion, more than any other type of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The 20 stocks with the highest short sales in the S&P 500 rose an average of 5.1 percent in December versus 0.7 percent for the Index, the widest performance gap since January 2012. Equities tend to rally when companies with the most short interest outperform – like in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Deepak Narula at Metacapital Mgmt said the Fed’s mission is to drive down the 30-year mortgage rate to let homeowners refinance. Narula uses mathematical models to calculate how long homeowners will make payments at their current interest rates before either refinancing or defaulting – models based on a homeowner’s
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds and private-equity firms are buying delinquent home loans sold by the FHA, paying an average of 36 cents on the dollar and a low of 26 cents. The FHA doesn’t have the legal authority to use workout tactics like principal forgiveness, and is not allowed to rent homes back to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: So far in 2012, hedge funds’ gains are 1.1 percent, macro funds are down 1.3 percent, multi-strategy funds are down 7.1 percent, long-short equity funds are up 1.5 percent; versus 13 percent for equities worldwide, including dividends. Hedge Fund Research said hedge fund assets grew 3.6 percent to a record $2.19 trillion in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds cut bullish wagers on commodities by the most since June, copper holdings fell to an eight-week low, gold wagers are the smallest since September, and oil the lowest in four months. Sales trailed estimates at 59 percent of US companies that released Q3 results through Nov. 2. Rob Haworth at US
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