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.
Reuters – Wall Street was set to open flat on Thursday, with investors eyeing retail sales and weekly jobless data for fresh insight into the state of the recession-hit economy.
* Investors will watch a 30-year treasury note auction for direction on interest rates, one day after a weak 10-year auction sent yields on the benchmark note to a eight-month high. The latest results are due at 1 p.m. EDT.
* Stock investors have been concerned that rates may dampen an economic recovery by increasing borrowing costs for consumers and businesses and are drawing money away from the stock market.
Bloomberg – Finding a parking spot for your Mercedes or BMW on Greenwich Avenue, the main shopping strip of the U.S. hedge-fund capital, used to be a challenge. Not anymore.
With the recession hammering retail sales, empty curbside spaces abound along the suburban Connecticut thoroughfare, known as the Rodeo Drive of the northeast, and “For Rent” signs decorate vacant storefronts. Ann Taylor, Banana Republic and Borders have all closed their Greenwich Avenue locations.
As banks and hedge funds cut jobs or close down in the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, Greenwich merchants are suffering sales declines. Some stores are simply packing it in. Many are renegotiating rents, cutting inventory or offering cheaper products.
Reuters UK- Polling and research group YouGov said on Monday it is aiming to raise up to $50 million (25 million pounds) for the launch of a hedge fund that will use polling data to highlight lucrative investment strategies.
The YouGov Alpha fund, which will be managed by investment boutique Four Capital, aims to gain an investment edge through YouGov’s research, which it believes can highlight areas where the stock market is being too optimistic or pessimistic, for example in retail sales.
"We’re looking to use it where the signals we get from the YouGov research are almost diametrically opposed to signals in the marketplace," said Four Capital fund manager Chris Rodgers, previously head of HSBC Halbis Partners’ UK Equity team and a senior fund manager at Schroders
