Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
Overseas – Some of the best news for U.S. companies and investors has been coming from overseas.
At home, the news remains bleak. In July, for example, U.S. retail sales slipped 0.1%—not the increase many economists were expecting. Heavily indebted and stressed about job losses, Americans seem reluctant to return to their free-spending ways.
Abroad, however, good news has come from unexpected places. Economists already suspected that China and other emerging economies were showing strength in recent months, the effect of the Chinese government’s aggressive stimulus programs.
Alibaba News Channel – Investors generally put aside recent worries about the world economy and banking industry woes on Thursday, sending global stocks higher and reversing safety flows into the Japanese yen.
Mixed earnings plagued European markets, however, with Credit Suisse posting better-than-expected profits and engineering group ABB missing forecasts and giving a cautious outlook.
Euro zone purchasing managers provided the latest "green shoots" data to suggest some economic recovery. They signalled stabilisation in their sectors but also record job losses.
Bloomberg – 21st Century Asset Management Co., run by former Nomura Asset Management Co. executive Takanori Shimizu, said it may seek growth through takeovers after the worst year on record for hedge funds.
Shimizu, 63, said he will also cut costs as the Tokyo-based firm strives to boost assets under management to 40 billion yen ($440 million) by the end of March 2010, from 14 billion yen as at Dec. 31, 2008.
“We are carefully considering possible cost cuts just like any other firm,” Shimizu said in an interview yesterday. “Acquiring another asset management firm to boost our assets may be a good strategy and we’re always on the lookout.”
The global credit crisis forced as many as 920 hedge funds out of business last year while the tally of job losses at financial firms worldwide reached 269,000. Last week, Rheos Capital Works Inc., a Tokyo-based hedge fund, said it would sell a majority stake to IS Holdings Inc. to weather the slowdown.
