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☆ Analysis: SVB collapse unleashes Treasury volatility, whiplashing investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] Customers wait in line outside a branch of the Silicon Valley Bank in Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S., March 13, 2023. REUTERS/Brian SnyderNEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - Extreme volatility is rattling U.S. Treasury markets in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's (SIVB.O) collapse and investors fear a prolonged bout of gyrations before calm returns to bond markets. The Fed chief's hawkish message helped push yields, which move inversely to prices, to their highest levels in years. As investors piled back into Treasuries, yields plummeted. Over the longer term, sustained rate volatility is unlikely to be good for stocks, said Purves, of Tallbacken Capital.

Possible outcomes for under-pressure regional banks could see a stronger rival take over a weaker, or cash infusions from investors such as private equity, the industry sources said. Reuters GraphicsUNDER PRESSUREInvestors voted with their feet on Monday, putting bank stocks under pressure around the world. So investors think it’s a relative gamble staying around owning regional banks before knowing what will change in regulation," said Brian Levitt, global market strategist for Invesco. Regional bank stocks are "an incredible bargain now," billionaire investor Bill Ackman said on Twitter on Monday. "There’s value in these banks, they are not all alike," said Michael Farr, chief executive of investment advisory firm Farr, Miller & Washington who owns banks stocks including PNC and Truist.

SYDNEY/NEW YORK, March 13 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators may have stemmed a banking crisis by guaranteeing deposits of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), but some experts warn that the move has encouraged bad investor behaviour. Following a weekend of discussions over the future of SVB owner SVB Financial Group , banking regulators unveiled emergency funding plans for the bank. Yet by guaranteeing that depositors would lose no money, authorities have again raised the question of moral hazard - removal of people's incentive to guard against financial risk. "If all bank deposits are now insured, why do you need banks?" Some 89% of around $200 billion in deposits held by SVB at the end of 2022 was uninsured, according to the FDIC.

☆ VIEW US intervenes to shore up SVB deposits, stem financial fallout
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

March 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. government announced actions to shore up deposits and stem any broader financial fallout from the sudden collapse of tech startup-focused lender Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) (SVB), sending U.S. stock futures higher. "The market turbulence sparked by SVB has upended rising market expectations on the Fed rate path. The fact that SVB and Signature Bank depositors will be made whole is critical in maintaining trust in the financial system and should help stem contagion fears this week. But it also means that 50 basis points (a possible Fed interest rate hike) is off the table." Given what's happened in the U.S. financial system, a 25 basis point hike is more likely than a 50 basis point hike."

☆ Instant view: US intervenes to shore up SVB deposits, limit financial fallout
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

March 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. government announced actions to shore up deposits and stem any broader financial fallout from the sudden collapse of tech startup-focused lender Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) (SVB), sending U.S. stock futures higher. ALVIN TAN, HEAD OF ASIA FX STRATEGY, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, SINGAPORE:"Markets remain unsettled from the SVB failure. "The market turbulence sparked by SVB has upended rising market expectations on the Fed rate path. ANTHONY SAGLIMBENE, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL, TROY, MICHIGAN:"It was imperative that regulators stepped in and decisively acted before markets around the world opened for the week. GREG MCBRIDE, CHIEF FINANCIAL ANALYST, BANKRATE:"While the Fed has talked about a lot in the past year, until today it has been in the context of monetary policy.

Members of the FIA include the major banks on Wall Street. As a clearing house, the OCC settles and guarantee options contracts, working as a central counterparty for credit risk. Apart from the group meeting with the FIA, the OCC has also discussed this issue individually with some market participants, one of the sources said. The OCC told this person it did not see a major risk, but it wanted to assess its members' views and explore different risk scenarios. Many 0DTE options have a low probability of rising in value as they approach expiration.

In a major shake-up, China will set up the new regulatory body, the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), according to a proposal that the State Council, or cabinet, presented to parliament on Tuesday. The watchdog, which will oversee all aspects of China's $57 trillion financial sector apart from the securities market, should help reduce regulatory overlap especially at the level of local government, analysts say. There are also plans, sources have said, for the revival of another high-level financial watchdog which is expected to be directly under central party leadership. 'ENHANCING CENTRALISATION'In its reform proposals presented in parliament, the State Council said the changes were meant to "deepen reforming local financial regulatory systems" by "enhancing centralised management of financial affairs". Some investors, however, are concerned that the regulatory power reshuffle means tighter government control, which may bring more interference or crackdowns on financial activity, particularly in the private sector.

☆ Citadel's Griffin says the Fed needs more consistency to tame inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, March 7 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel and Citadel Securities, said on Tuesday the Federal Reserve needs more consistency of communication in order to tame inflation and that the setup for a recession is unfolding. "If I could tell one thing to the (Fed) chairman, I would tell him to say less. I would just write a message: we're going to put the inflation genie back in the bottle," Griffin said in a televised interview with Bloomberg. Earlier on Tuesday, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the Fed will likely need to raise interest rates more than expected to control inflation. He believes the Fed will increase interest rates to around 5.5% to tame inflation.

☆ Exclusive: Bridgewater raises new fund strategy less dependent on equities
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Connecticut-based Bridgewater, which manages $145 billion, launched the "Defensive Alpha" strategy in July last year, regulatory filings showed. The new strategy is an addition to other offerings from the 48-year-old hedge fund, best known for its All Weather and Pure Alpha funds. In that market last year, Bridgewater's flagship fund, Pure Alpha gained roughly 9.5% and outperformed global equities indexes. Pure Alpha actively bets on the direction of various types of securities — including stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies — by predicting macroeconomic trends. On Wednesday, Chief Executive Nir Bar Dea announced a major overhaul at the hedge fund, including restricting investments in Pure Alpha and plans to launch new products.

[1/3] A man wearing a protective mask is seen inside the Shanghai Stock Exchange building, as the country is hit by a new coronavirus outbreak, at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai, China, February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song/File PhotoNEW YORK/SINGAPORE, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Many large money managers are steering clear of Chinese assets, missing out on the nation's post-COVID stock market rally in the latest example of strategic concerns trumping juicy returns. "For our investors who might have that concern, there are plenty of other opportunities away from China." The concern flagged by some is whether this is part of a structural downgrade for Chinese assets, said Will Malcolm, a Singapore-based portfolio manager at Aviva Investors. That could attract cash in a hurry, but the behaviour of large investors so far suggests that a large sentiment shift will be needed.

☆ Hedge funds' short-covering of tech bets is 2nd biggest in a decade - banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"The short covering in U.S. tech stocks from Jan 31st to Feb 15th is the second largest in magnitude over any 12-day period in the past decade," Goldman Sachs wrote in a note reviewed by Reuters. JPMorgan also said in a daily note to clients that communication services and information technology stocks had led the short covering in its books on Thursday. Overall, JPMorgan said multi-strategy and equity quantitative hedge funds had led the short covering, while equity long-short funds had been ahead in bets against stocks. Amid stock rises in February, hedge funds were forced to unwind their bets against the shares. read moreReporting by Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ TSMC out of favor with slew of funds alongside Berkshire, filings show
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The announcement drove shares in TSMC down 6% on Wednesday, although they remain up 23.5% this year. Equity long-short hedge fund Tiger entirely sold its 1.3 million shares in TSMC in the fourth quarter, a stake worth $119 million at current prices. Fund manager Capital Group also sold over 9.5 million shares in the chipmaker, regulatory filings showed. JPMorgan and BlackRock dumped roughly 4 million shares in TSMC each. On Tuesday, Charles Munder, a director and vice-chairman of Berkshire, said TSMC is the "strongest semiconductor company on earth," without elaborating on the reasons for the sale.

Buffett's company bought another 20.8 million Apple shares worth $3.2 billion, raising its stake to 5.8%, according to the filing. Shares in Apple have surged nearly 18% this year. Berkshire shrunk its stake in BNY Mellon by roughly 60%, to 25.1 million shares. At current prices, the divestment is worth nearly $2 billion. The number of shares Berkshire holds fell 12.3%, to 52.7 million.

Burry was featured in the 2010 nonfiction book "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis which was made into a popular movie five years later. Farallon, meanwhile, added 2,197,000 shares of Alibaba, while Coatue added 4,796,186 shares of Alibaba and 1,221,551 shares of JD.com. China began taking steps to end its zero-COVID policy, which was among the world's strictest anti-coronavirus regimes, in December. Hedge fund managers' positions were revealed in 13F filings that show what fund managers owned at the end of the quarter. While they are backward-looking, these filings are one of the few public disclosures of hedge fund portfolios.

☆ Soros Fund adds First Horizon, Horizon Therapeutics and bond ETF
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Soros disclosed a $325.3 million stake, or 2.9 million shares, in biotech firm Horizon Therapeutics (HZNP.O), which was bought by Amgen (AMGN.O) in December for nearly $28 billion. The firm also bought 2.8 million shares, valued at $90 million, in home health assessment firm Signify Health (SGFY.N). It added $209.1 million, or 8.5 million shares, in Memphis-based financial services company First Horizon, which was acquired by Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) roughly a year ago for $13.4 billion. Shares in Zoom Technologies Inc (ZTNO.PK) and Airbnb Inc (ABNB.O) were sold, while it reduced its holdings in Amazon.com (AMZN.O), by 54.5%, to 901 million shares. The regulatory filing also showed Soros bought $255 million in an investment grade corporate bond ETF.

☆ Wall St dips as Treasury yields rise after auction
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"With Treasury yields higher, it becomes a legitimate alternative to equities," said Michael Rosen, chief investment officer at Angeles Investments. Weighing on the S&P 500 (.SPX) and Nasdaq (.IXIC) indexes, Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) extended losses from the previous session to fall 4.7%. All 11 S&P 500 sectors posted losses. More than half of the S&P 500 companies have reported quarterly earnings so far, and 69% of them have beaten estimates, according to Refinitiv data. The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 75 new highs and 57 new lows.

One U.S. holder of Adani bonds looked to buy more this week but said his trade orders were not being executed because of lack of available paper. Another U.S. based emerging markets focused money manager who held Adani bonds said he was sitting tight on his position. Indian companies have not been prolific issuers of U.S. dollar bonds and Adani's bonds with secured assets were seen as providing direct, quality exposure to the fast-growing economy. Another source, a U.S. based hedge fund manager, said he was looking to short Adani's dollar bonds after the Hindenburg report but was finding it difficult to borrow bonds to sell. Bid-offer spreads, a measure of liquidity, widened significantly after the Hindenburg report, Tradeweb data showed.

☆ Wall St dips as Treasury yields rise; Disney hits 5-month high
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The U.S. 30-year Treasury yield rose after an auction in the early afternoon, while the yield curve between two-year and 10-year notes widened earlier. Weighing on the S&P 500 (.SPX) and Nasdaq (.IXIC) indexes, Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) extended losses from the previous session to fall 5.2179%. The S&P 500 communication services sector (.SPLRCL) sank 2.86%. More than half of the S&P 500 companies have reported quarterly earnings so far, and 69% of them have beaten estimates, according to Refinitiv data. The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 69 new highs and 41 new lows.

In the last five years, multi-manager hedge funds averaged returns of 8.3%, outperforming the wider industry's 5.5%, the note seen by Reuters this week said. Hedge funds such as Citadel, Millennium Management and Balyasny Asset Management employ a multi-manager hedge fund model, according to investors and public filings. Barclays tracked 42 multi-manager hedge funds collectively managing over $290 billion in assets, two-thirds of which are in the United States, it added. Costs may run high, but the final amount they see back beats most other hedge funds. Multi-manager hedge funds have doubled assets under management since 2016, said the Barclays note.

☆ Global hedge funds gain in January, but not as much as stock market, HFR says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Global hedge funds posted a solid 2.8% gain in January, but they missed out on the stellar rally that broader stock market indexes posted to start the year because the funds were mostly positioned for a continued bear market, data provider HFR said on Tuesday. Last year, hedge funds posted their worst performance since 2018, mainly dragged down by equities as portfolio managers struggled to place bets amid market turmoil. Still, the main Wall Street indexes far outperformed hedge funds. Data from Goldman Sachs' prime brokerage showed that last month hedge funds massively abandoned their bets against stocks as they became too expensive amid a rally. Relative value hedge funds, which trade price disparities, rose 1.95%, while macro hedge funds gained 0.26%, mainly dragged down by algorithm-driven and commodities strategies.

His comments renewed investor hopes for less aggressive monetary policy that wavered after a strong U.S. jobs report last Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC) rallied on news form Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), and the S&P 500 (.SPX) also got a boost. Most sectors on the S&P 500 ended higher. So far, more than half of the companies on the S&P 500 have reported quarterly earnings, with 69.1% of them beating expectations, according to Refinitiv. The S&P 500 posted 5 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 90 new highs and 31 new lows.

His comments came after a strong jobs report last week stymied rising hopes of less aggressive monetary policy. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 fluctuated during and after Powell's remarks. Boosting the tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC) and the S&P 500 (.SPX) was Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O). Six of the top 11 sectors on the S&P 500 fell, but technology (.SPLRCT) was among top gainers, up 1.61%. So far, more than half of the companies on the S&P 500 have reported quarterly earnings, with 69.1% of them beating expectations, according to Refinitiv.

[1/2] Indian billionaire Gautam Adani speaks during an inauguration ceremony after the Adani Group completed the purchase of Haifa Port earlier in January 2023, in Haifa port, Israel January 31, 2023. On Wednesday, a $2.5 billion sale of shares by one of its companies Adani Enterprises ADEL.NS was called off. Adani Group and the stock market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) did not respond to a request for comment. Cracking the code of how Hindenburg did the trade could lead to more short sellers taking positions against Indian companies, which have been rare, analysts said. But several bankers familiar with trading in Indian securities said the more profitable piece of the short seller’s bet would likely lie in the derivative trades it had placed.

The NYSE, which is owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE.N), said a "system issue" prevented the opening auctions in a subset of its listed securities. The stocks began trading without an opening print, causing erroneous prices that the exchange said will be declared null and void. NYSE ended the day with a normal market close and expected a regular open on Wednesday, Blaugrund added. The NYSE-listed stocks trade on all 16 U.S. stock exchanges, which use the NYSE's prices. In March 2018, the NYSE was the first exchange fined under Reg SCI.

☆ Explainer: Who is behind Hindenburg, the company that is shorting Adani?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Short-seller Hindenburg Research disclosed on Wednesday short positions in India's Adani Group, citing potential stock manipulation and accounting fraud in a report. WHAT IS HINDENBURG RESEARCHFounded in 2017 by Nathan Anderson, Hindenburg Research is a forensic financial research firm which analyses equity, credit and derivatives. On its website, Hindenburg says it looks for "man-made disasters," such as accounting irregularities, mismanagement and undisclosed related-party transactions. After finding potential wrongdoings, Hindenburg usually publishes a report explaining the case and bets against the target company, hoping to make a profit. HOW MANY COMPANIES HAS HINDENBURG TARGETEDHindenburg has flagged potential wrongdoing in at least 16 companies since 2017, according to its website.

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