Jim Chanos and the bears come out of hibernation
By Matthew Goldstein
The year is young, but so far its been a rough one for bearish stock investors with the S&P 500 is up 7.25% The surge in equity prices has left a lot of short sellers–traders who bet on a stock sliding in value–with glum looks on their faces. And it’s with that bullish backdrop that several dozen of Jim Chanos’ closest friends gather in Miami for the noted short seller’s annual meeting of the bears.
The gathering of 40 or so people from Wednesday through Friday is a chance for Chanos and other like minded investors to kick around their best short ideas. A year ago, there was a lot of talk about shorting companies in the natural gas space.
One more try at the Great Refi
By Matthew Goldstein
Don’t be surprised if President Obama includes a line or two in his State of Union address this evening about the need for a plan to allow millions of struggling homeowners whose mortgages are packaged into so-called private label mortgage-backed securities to get a chance to either refinance their loans or restructure them.
The Washington Post is reporting today that mortgage refinancing may be one of the laundry list of items Obama will talk about tonight. And for several months now, investors in private mortgage-securities–deals issued by Wall Street banks and financial firms and not guaranteed by Fannie or Freddie–have been quietly bracing for the Obama administration to move forward with a new refinancing effort.
Wall Streeters find life really is greener on the other side
Ex Wall Streeters talk about the better life working at a startup
Here’s a post from UF contributor and intrepid Wall Street reporter Lauren T. LaCapra, who is on assignment:
By Lauren Tara LaCapra
“One last question,” the moderator asked the panel of former Wall Streeters now working for fast-growing tech startups. “Would any of you go back to banking?”
In lawsuit against S&P, a surprise appearance from Talking Heads
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When the housing market was on the road to nowhere in 2007, one ratings analyst found an unlikely muse: the post-punk band Talking Heads.
The analyst wrote a parody of the rock group’s 1983 hit, “Burning Down the House,” and emailed it to friends. His version of the song ended up in a 128-page lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Justice filed against rating agency Standard & Poor’s late Monday.
Goldman finds a way past Volcker with new credit fund
NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group is looking
to raise up to $600 million from its wealthy customers for a
publicly traded credit fund that will provide loans to mid-sized
companies – believed to be the first fund of its kind for the
Wall Street bank.
The new fund, in which Goldman (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) could invest another
$150 million of its own money, is being structured as a business
development company, an investment vehicle that is specifically
exempt from the so-called Volcker Rule that puts limits on some
activities by Wall Street firms.
Exclusive: Goldman finds a way past Volcker with new credit fund
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group is looking to raise up to $600 million from its wealthy customers for a publicly traded credit fund that will provide loans to mid-sized companies – believed to be the first fund of its kind for the Wall Street bank.
The new fund, in which Goldman could invest another $150 million of its own money, is being structured as a business development company, an investment vehicle that is specifically exempt from the so-called Volcker Rule that puts limits on some activities by Wall Street firms.
Tyrone Gilliams fights the law
By Matthew Goldstein
It’s been a while since we last wrote about the legal struggles of Tyrone Gilliams, the Philadelphia commodities trader/hip-hop promoter/wannabe reality show star/self-styled preacher, whom federal authorities have charged with scamming investors out of $5 million. But the University of Pennslyania graduate is making news again with the scheduled start of his Jan. 22 criminal trial in New York federal court.
Gilliams will be on trial with his former lawyer Everette Scott. Both men are charged with working together to “devise a scheme and artifice to defraud” investors out of their money that was supposed to have been invested in Treasury Strips–a derivative of U.S. Treasury bonds the separates the coupon and principal on the underlying note into different securities.
Stevie, SAC and that ticking redemption clock
By Matthew Goldstein and Svea Herbst-Bayliss
The WSJ is out today with a big story saying Stevie Cohen and SAC Capital are bracing for up to $1 billion in redemptions, or roughly 16 percent of the $6.3 billion it manages for outside investors. That’s a lot of money but sources are telling us redemptions will likely come in lower than that—think more in the $500 million range.
And more important, no matter what the figure is, don’t look for it to put much crimp in Cohen’s operation.
The gold rush in foreclosed homes picks up steam as mad money flows freely
By Matthew Goldstein
Institutional money keeps rushing into the market for foreclosed homes, with some big players snapping up homes at breakneck speed. But the question is whether the big buyers are throwing money around indiscriminately and Wall Street’s big housing long will come up a bit short.
The other day Bloomberg reported that Blackstone Group has already spent $2.5 billion to buy 16,000 homes to manage as rentals and eventually sell them when prices appreciate high enough. Blackstone says it’s finding that the going price for homes sold at foreclosure auctions and out of bank inventories are rising quicker than anticipated.
Hedge fund chief Einhorn disappoints, Loeb has big 2012
BOSTON/NEW YORK, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Widely followed hedge
fund managers Daniel Loeb and David Einhorn ended the year on
divergent notes with Loeb’s firm handily beating the broader
stock market and Einhorn’s firm posting a modest single-digit
annual gain after performing poorly in December.
For Einhorn, who has moved stock prices by simply opening
his mouth, 2012 ended with lackluster returns when his
Greenlight Capital lost 2.8 percent in December, a person
familiar with the fund’s performance said.
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