“Most things in investing are two-edged swords: if you do more of them, you’ll make more if they work but lose more if they don’t,” wrote Marks, chairman of Oaktree Capital Management LP in Los Angeles, who left his endowment post at Penn on June 30. [Bloomberg]
Archive for November 2010
RBS Faces `Long, Hard Slog’ as Hester Forecasts Reduced Loss (Bloomberg)
The loss for the year will be “nominal,” Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester, 49, said on a conference call with journalists today, following a 3.6 billion-pound ($5.8 billion) loss in 2009. The third quarter net loss narrowed by 36 percent to 1.15 billion pounds from 1.8 billion pounds in the year- earlier period as impairments fell, RBS said in a statement…“There are inevitably clouds still out there on the horizon,” Hester said. “We still have our raincoats on.”
HSBC Profit Growth Slows, Sees ‘Bumps in the Road‘ (Bloomberg)
“Our latest data from emerging markets points to a slowdown in the rate of recovery and the likelihood of some bumps in the road ahead,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Geoghegan said in the statement. “We believe the long-term fundamentals for emerging economies are as compelling as ever.”
German Finance Minister: US Policy ‘Clueless’ (Reuters)
“With all due respect, U.S. policy is clueless,” Wolfgang Schaeuble said at a conference.
AIG Posts $2.4 Billion Loss (AP)
AIG lost $2.4 billion, or $17.62 per share, compared with earnings of $92 million, or 68 cents per share, a year ago.
Representative Bachus Warns Geithner On Volcker Rule (Reuters)
“If the Volcker Rule’s prohibitions are expansively interpreted and rigidly implemented against U.S. institutions while other nations refuse to adopt them, the damage to U.S. competitiveness and job creation could be substantial,” Bachus wrote in the November 3 letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top regulators.
GM Touts Its Profit Potential In IPO Pitch (WSJ)
GM tells investors the company can generate $11 billion to $13 billion in annual pretax profit and profit margins of 7% to 8% as the North American auto market recovers, according to a video in the presentation by Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell that was available Thursday on a website used by underwriters to distribute IPO information. Mr. Liddell says GM should be able to hit those targets as the industry moves up from the trough of 2009. When the car market is at its strongest, he says, GM will be capable of delivering pretax annual profit of $17 billion to $19 billion, with profit margins of 9% to 10%.
Octogenarian Finds Copper With China as Biggest Customer (Bloomberg)
In the snake-infested jungle of southeastern Ecuador, the American explorer David Lowell found himself sliding over a waterfall and heard his head bounce off a rock “like a melon being hit by a hammer,” he says. Lowell was 72 and prospecting for copper that day in May 2000. He stepped into the slippery streambed for a vantage point free of vipers and vines. A broken rib and throbbing head diverted him to a nearby hamlet in search of help. “There was one man in the village who was a combination chiropractor and mortician,” Lowell says. “We decided to just buy a little tin of liniment with the picture of a dragon on it.” The expedition carried on. In the clear water of the stream, Lowell saw enough to help him find one of South America’s richest copper deposits. This May, a joint venture of Chinese state-owned companies paid $652 million to buy Lowell’s partner in the exploration, Vancouver- based Corriente Resources Inc. Lowell kept a stake there for himself, though local opposition has prevented mining. In a career spanning six decades and 44 countries, Lowell has made 14 major discoveries, including the world’s largest copper deposit in Chile. He found treasures where others detected nothing worth mining. Lowell revolutionized exploration and unearthed metals that helped the U.S. build the world’s largest economy. He also made investors billions.
BlackRock Fund To Finance, Securitize US Mortgages (Reuters)
The $1 billion BlackRock Mortgage Investors Fund will provide capital for prime “jumbo” loans through lenders under strict underwriting guidelines, said Randy Robertson, a managing director and co-head of securitized products.
FrontPoint Cautioned Manager On Trades (WSJ)
FrontPoint Partners manager Joseph F. “Chip” Skowron, who has been put on leave pending the outcome of an insider-trading investigation concerning a biotechnology stock, was warned by supervisors about trading other securities he or others on his team discussed with a network of health-care advisers, said people familiar with the matter.
Spoonachos Are The Holy Grail Of Chips (Gizmodo)
Dare to dream. Continue reading »
$$$ Fed Treads Into Once Taboo Realm [WSJ]
$$$ Brunei Prince Fights to Keep Sex Statues Out of New York Trial [Bloomberg]
$$$ Someone is mad at Erin Burnett [Fortune] Continue reading »
Wall Street loves to describe itself as various animals. Given. You’ve got your bulls and bears of course, but many firms like to put their own original spin on things. For instance, at Bridgewater, employees are told to “be the hyena, attacking the wildebeest.” And at Bank of America, according to a new book by Greg Farrell, at least under the regime of Ken Lewis and his underboss Steele Alphin, they were wolves. Continue reading »
In his opening statement this week, a lawyer for Milton Balkany, the Rabbi who tried to shake down SAC Capital’s Steve Cohen for $4 million, said that his client went after this particular hedge fund manager because he was “Jewish and rich.” Since obviously Cohen is not the only person on earth or even in the area with such characteristics, Balkany must have done his homework to figure out that Steve is not just rich but super fucking rich, and chose to go after a big kill rather than some pedestrianly wealthy citizen.
To that end, given that Cohen is extremely well-known on Wall Street but not as famous to the general population as, say, Jamie Dimon or Dick Fuld, one might figure that Balkany’s intel went deep. Likes, dislikes, reputation, and just generally, of course, that Steve Cohen = King. Grand High Poobah. Lord High Admiral. Archbishop of Stamford. You get the idea- but apparently Balkany did not, as evidenced in a transcript of a taped phone call that took place last January between SAC’s outside counsel, Martin Klotz, and the Rabbi, as part of the sting (SAC immediately went to the authorities after initially hearing from Balkany). Continue reading »
Go ahead. Do a little victory dance. You’ve earned the right to shake your money-makers this month. Continue reading »
At this point in his life, no one would fault Julian Robertson for not starting another career. He’s already had an arguably pretty successful one as a hedge fund manager, in addition to his work rearing the Tiger Cubs, to say nothing of his wine business. Still, he’s always had a dream gig and today he shared it with Erin Burnett on CNBC. “I would love to be the Obesity Czar,” Robertson said. Continue reading »
Bank of America has no plans to fully sever strategic ties with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan told analysts in Boston on Thursday, [despite] BlackRock’s announcement on Wednesday it planned to sell 34.5 million shares owned by Bank of America, in a secondary offering that could cut BofA’s ownership from 33.9 percent to 12.6 percent. Moynihan said the relationship between the two companies will extend beyond his and BlackRock Chief Executive Laurence, or Larry, Fink’s tenures. “We’ll be together for the duration of Larry and mine’s career and beyond,” Moynihan said. [Reuters]
Despite the fact that he is a rolly polly ball of smiles that had the good sense to sell his hedge fund to Citi for a billion dollars, as the CEO of the Treasury’s special needs child, Vikram Pandit does not have a lot to look forward to, other than the day he “makes more than $1.” So when the word got out several weeks ago that he was going to have the opportunity to meet one of his idols, he got pretty psyched Naturally, the idol I speak of is Mr. Jay-Z. Continue reading »
“In the midst of debates on financial regulation and China’s currency in April,” Bloomberg reports today, “Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sat down to discuss the U.S. economy– with comedian Jon Stewart.” Continue reading »
Ever since he was named Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner has suffered from a lack of respect, both from the outside world and internally. His boss makes “jokes” in public about dogs pissing on him, people refuse to believe he didn’t work at Goldman Sachs and hardly a day goes by without a story claiming he’s getting fired and replaced by (take your pick) Jamie Dimon, Mike Bloomberg, or Jojo the idiot circus boy. Today brings yet another blow, this time from the IT department at the World Bank, which appears to be sending a subtle hint. Continue reading »
