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.
TMCnet – Several months ago, economist David Hale had a private meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who was trying to ward off a recession by lowering interest rates and increasing the money supply in the economy.
The problem with that approach is that the value of the dollar plunged against foreign currencies, causing crude oil prices to skyrocket because oil is pegged to the dollar. It affected food prices, gasoline and family budgets.
"Ben, you are playing a very unique role in world economic history," Hale recalled telling Bernanke, an expert in the Great Depression. "You are the first central bank governor of the United States to preside over a recession with no decline in commodity prices."
Globe and Mail – A year ago, Dwight Anderson was being hailed as the "king of commodities," a precocious 40-year-old hedge fund manager who made a prescient – and highly profitable – bet that global food prices would spike in unprecedented fashion.
Now he is merely another in a long line of hard-luck speculators, his crown handed to him by a fickle commodities market that has proven itself capable of ruining fortunes as quickly as it created them.
In a letter to investors yesterday, Mr. Anderson announced he was shutting down the largest fund of Ospraie Management LLC, the firm he built into one of the largest commodities-themed hedge funds in the world. The Ospraie Fund, which focuses on natural gas, oil, metals and other resources, boasted assets of almost $4-billion (U.S.) at its peak last year, but so far in 2008 it is down 39 per cent – including a gut-wrenching 27-per-cent slide in August.
"I am extremely disappointed with this result and the fund’s sudden reversal in performance," Mr. Anderson wrote. "The losses were primarily caused by a substantial selloff in a number of our energy, mining and resource equity holdings during a six-week period characterized by some of the sharpest declines in these sectors in the past 10 to 20 years."
istockAnalyst.com- Investors face something of a new landscape in financial markets this week after tumbling oil and food prices eased immediate concerns about inflation, potentially freeing central banks to fight slow economic growth.
The focus, however, will also be on some old stalwarts – a continuing stream of corporate earnings reports and the U.S. employment report for July, a monthly bellwether for the health of the American economy.
The past two weeks have seen major declines on commodity markets, which until recently were booming. They had provided investors with gains but also headaches because of the impact of higher prices on companies and economies.
That has now turned around. Since hitting a record above $147 a barrel on July 11, oil has fallen 15 percent.
Food prices have seen similar moves. Wheat is down 18 percent in the past month while corn has lost 25 percent.
From a broad investor perspective, this can be good news, assuming it continues.
Daily Telegraph- The chief executive of the sugar refining group Tate & Lyle has hit out at hedge funds and other commodity speculators, calling for them to face greater regulation in a bid to hold back soaring food prices.
Hedge funds have been blamed for contributing to the rocketing price of commodities including oil, wheat and corn by speculating in the futures market with highly leveraged bets on forward prices.
Tate & Lyle boss Iain Ferguson called for limits to be placed on speculators’ involvement in the futures market and the way hedge funds and others finance their activity.
