Bloomberg – Companies with the most debt and lowest returns on assets are turning the biggest six-week rally in stocks since 1938 into a bloodbath for last year’s best- performing trading strategy.

Investors in so-called quantitative momentum funds — which speculate that the worst stocks in the past 12 months will continue to decline — have become this year’s biggest losers after banks and companies that rely on consumer spending surged. Quant momentum managers may have tumbled 27 percent this month in the U.S., the most since at least 1993, while those in Europe may have lost 20 percent in March and 24 percent in April, according to data compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

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Tags: 12 months, amp, assets, banks, biggest losers, bloodbath, consumer spending, europe, investors, jpmorgan chase, momentum, rally, stocks, trading strategy

Associated Press – Activist hedge fund manager William Ackman is in talks with Target Corp. about naming potential directors to the discount retailer’s board, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.

Target shares gained 61 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $28.43 in aftermarket electronic trading, after gaining 23 cents to close the regular session at $27.82. The stock has lost about half of its value since peaking at $59.55 in September before the market meltdown.

In recent months, Target Corp. has suffered from a drop in consumer spending, while other discount chains — particularly rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc. — have outperformed. While Wal-Mart concentrates on offering low-price essentials, Target has focused more on a cheap-chic variety of more discretionary items like clothing and home decor.

On Tuesday, Target reported that its fourth-quarter profit fell 41 percent.

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Tags: activist, associated press, consumer spending, discount chains, discount retailer, electronic trading, fourth-quarter, hedge-fund-manager, home decor, market-meltdown, quarter-profit, s board, securities-and-exchange, securities-and-exchange-commission, stock, target-corp, wal mart, wal mart stores, wal-mart-stores-inc, william ackman