Reuters – Two activist hedge funds of Dillard’s Inc are demanding access to inspect the retailer’s books and records, seeking greater transparency from the department store chain’s executives and family members.

Dillard’s shares jumped 18 percent in Monday morning trading.

Barington Capital has been calling on the Little Rock, Arkansas retailer to take steps to improve financial results and governance practices since at least June 2007.

The hedge funds own around 5 percent of Dillard’s class A stock. The Dillard family own most of the company’s class B stock, which allows them to nominate eight of the company’s 12 directors.

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New York Times – Frazzled traders and money managers spent an angst-filled weekend struggling to fathom the sweeping bailout the Bush administration proposed for financial institutions in the United States and what it will mean for the world’s markets.

At big banks, staff members rushed to update trading records before the opening bell sounded on Monday morning in New York. Quants, those math-loving traders who use complex computer models to hunt out investments, tinkered with algorithms.

Some hedge fund managers, unsure where the markets will go or what the government will do, sought safety in cash. Securities lawyers sorted through new rules from the Securities and Exchange Commission that will require such funds to disclose their bearish bets on financial companies.

And in between, everyone tried to catch up on some sleep.

But after the Dow Jones industrial average cartwheeled a dizzying 1,023 points in 24 hours on Thursday and Friday, ending the week virtually where it began, just about the only thing people seemed to agree on was that this ride was not over.

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