• 24 Sep 2010 at 9:20 AM

Opening Bell: 09.24.10

Clinton Bemoans Scant Hedge Fund Support For His Global Initiative (Bloomberg)
Clinton said he knew of only two hedge-fund firms represented at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting this year, which President Barack Obama will address today. He didn’t name the firms. “There should be more,” Clinton said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt.”

Macro Forces Stump Stock Pickers (WSJ)
More and more investors aren’t bothering to pore through corporate reports searching for gems and duds, but are trading big buckets of stocks, bonds and commodities based mainly on macro concerns. As a result, all kinds of stocks—good as well as bad—are moving more in lock step. “It’s unbelievably frustrating,” says Mr. Pedowitz, who helps manage $4.5 billion for wealthy clients and has 25 years of investing experience. “It’s enough to make you crazy.”

Cash Cameos: Wall Street Pays (NYP)
Jim Chanos, who plays himself in the movie and got a “Special Thanks” in the credits, told The Post he’s spending the standard acting fee he earned from the flick on “acting lessons, obviously.” When asked what he earned from his appearance he told The Post he received $1.24. Maria Bartiromo, who refused to disclose what she earned from her stint, isn’t blowing her appearance fee on champagne and caviar — or even a pepperoni pizza from Spumoni Gardens in her native Brooklyn. Bartiromo told The Post she’s sockin’ away the cash instead. “I’m a big believer in savings so when I receive the check it will just go in my savings account,” she said.

Congress Delays Tax Cut Battle Until After November Elections (Bloomberg)
“The reality is we’re not going to pass” the tax cuts before the election, Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, said yesterday. Blaming politics, he said, “We are so tightly wound up in this campaign” that Democrats and Republicans won’t be able to reach an agreement.

Blackstone Forecasts Return Of $10 Billion LBO (Reuters)
“We’ve had a recovery in the credit markets which has frankly been a bit surprising,” Vikrant Sawhney, senior managing director, told investors.

Volcker Spares No One In Broad Critique (WSJ)
“The financial system is broken. We can use that term in late 2008, and I think it’s fair to still use the term unfortunately. We know that parts of it are absolutely broken, like the mortgage market which only happens to be the most important part of our capital markets [and has] become a subsidiary of the U.S. government.”

Credit Suisse Commodities Unit Bolts (WSJ)
A senior global commodities trader at Credit Suisse Group AG is leading an eight-person team out of the bank to start a hedge fund backed by Blackstone Group LP, people familiar with the matter say. The planned spinout involves one of the biggest trading groups to leave Wall Street. The team is one of the first Blackstone has selected for startup funding since U.S. lawmakers in July passed sweeping legislation to curb so-called proprietary trading, or trading using banks’ capital rather than clients’ funds.

HSBC Chief To Exit In Shake-Up (WSJ)
Mr. Geoghegan will leave after an intense campaign to succeed departing Stephen Green as the London-based bank’s chairman, said people familiar with the matter. Instead, HSBC Chief Financial Officer Douglas Flint will become chairman and HSBC investment-banking head Stuart Gulliver will be CEO, these people said.

BlockBuster Chief Says He Will Evaluate ‘Every Single Store’ (Bloomberg)
LOL.

Wall Street Insiders Open Up For Money Never Sleeps (LATimes)
“When my name was invoked, sometimes it would strike fear into the hearts of the bankers,” Stone said. “Certainly Goldman Sachs and [JPMorgan] Chase were not in the market to talk to us.”

Comments (15)

  1. Posted by Fahrfignugen | September 24, 2010 at 1:42 PM

    I don’t think Oliver Stone’s and Michael Moore’s egos could fit in the same ZIP code together. Jeez.

  2. Posted by Tad Allagash | September 24, 2010 at 1:44 PM

    MM’s tits can’t fit in the same time zone, never mind zip code.

  3. Posted by Losama In Baden | September 24, 2010 at 1:45 PM

    Billy, I feel ya. I’ve said many times that there should be more hedge funds invested in my global initiatives.

  4. Posted by Jigsaw | September 24, 2010 at 1:49 PM

    Macro funds dont trade at micro level not because they cant but because they dont need to .. if i have a view vietnam is going up then i can do it cheaper by buying the large vietnamese stocks through ETF and pay less commision for the trade + less usage of research analysts. ofcourse you could make more return by being prudent stock picker in vietnamese stocks, but you got 2 confusion, is that bit more alpha you gonna squeeze out worth the effort and more importantly most stock pickers cant beat the blindfolded monkey with darts.. so you are probably gonna destroy alpha rather than make any … every strategy has its own pros and cons ..

  5. Posted by Finishing Nails | September 24, 2010 at 1:54 PM

    That’s all hogwash. All you gotta do is buy low and sell high and you’re golden. Can’t fail.

  6. Posted by Anonymous | September 24, 2010 at 2:04 PM

    What’s a Blockbuster? Also, I’m not sure if whining if an effective strategy to attract hedge fund investment…though Bill has made a career of being a whiner post-presidency.

    http://proposition13.blogspot.com/2010/09/verint-systems-scenarios.html

  7. Posted by Gues | September 24, 2010 at 2:10 PM

    or if you were smart enough sell high and buy low

  8. Posted by Herp Derpson, Esq | September 24, 2010 at 2:11 PM

    So…English is your second language?

  9. Posted by Anonymous | September 24, 2010 at 2:11 PM

    I see that your sophomore Intro to Finance class is going well. Next up, you can teach us about EMH.

  10. Posted by Milo M. | September 24, 2010 at 2:29 PM

    I make a profit of three and a quarter cents a piece when I sell them to me and a profit of two and three quarter cents apiece when I buy them back from me. That’s a total profit of six cents an egg. I lose only two cents an egg when I sell them to the mess halls at five cents apiece, and that’s how I can make a profit buying eggs for seven cents apiece and selling them for five cents apiece. I pay only one cent a piece at the hen when I buy them in Sicily.

  11. Posted by Festerbottom, C | September 24, 2010 at 2:36 PM

    Dude we all dabble in the blogging thing from time to time but that doesn;t mean you spam everyone to fucking death with it.

    YD- Too busy banging models to bring teh funneh since oh five

    http://www.yuppiedouchebagchronicles.blogspot.com/

  12. Posted by ENOUGHALREADY | September 24, 2010 at 3:13 PM

    TA: Agreed. Or, if you MUST spam us, please provide content more interesting than the musings I carry on with the toilet paper roll during my mid-morning sabbatical. I’ve bitten twice, I shall not fall for it thrice.

  13. Posted by Guest | September 24, 2010 at 3:36 PM

    you rack disciprine

  14. Posted by Anonymous | September 24, 2010 at 3:47 PM

    Sorry, I just throw it in as a sig. I guess I can overkill it sometimes.

  15. Posted by Guesterbator | September 24, 2010 at 6:02 PM

    Overkilling it is the new killing it.

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