Opening Bell: 10.7.15

Ackman Says General Electric Great Operator, ‘Terrible’ Investor (Bloomberg)
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said his activist fund spent “an enormous amount of time working on” a potential investment in General Electric Co. before GE announced the sale of most of its real estate assets in April, and concluded it “wasn’t cheap enough.”

Trans-Pacific Currency Deal Puts Yellen's Fed in the Spotlight (Bloomberg)
As a sidebar to the largest trade pact in two decades, the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim countries agreed not to manipulate foreign-exchange rates and to consult on monetary policies. Economies like Vietnam and Malaysia, which rely heavily on exports, promised not to devalue their currencies in order to gain a competitive advantage. In exchange, they want to get more insights into U.S. monetary policy. An interest rate hike, the first in almost a decade, will probably prompt capital to flee developing nations, causing their currencies to slump.

New York Attorney General Opens Inquiry Into Fantasy Sports Sites (NYT)
The New York attorney general began an inquiry Tuesday into the prospect that employees of daily fantasy football sites have won lucrative payouts based on inside information not available to the public, asking two leading companies, DraftKings and FanDuel, for a range of internal data and details on how they prevent fraud. Word of the inquiry came as the revelation that DraftKings and FanDuel allowed their employees — many with information not available to customers — to play at each other’s sites and win large amounts of money continued to rattle the sports world. Some of the industry’s primary sponsors raised questions or distanced themselves from lucrative advertising and sponsorship deals. On Monday, both companies told The New York Times that they had temporarily prohibited their employees from playing in money games.

Big U.S. firms hold $2.1 trillion overseas to avoid taxes: study (Reuters)
The 500 largest American companies hold more than $2.1 trillion in accumulated profits offshore to avoid U.S. taxes and would collectively owe an estimated $620 billion in U.S. taxes if they repatriated the funds, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study, by two left-leaning non-profit groups, found that nearly three-quarters of the firms on the Fortune 500 list of biggest American companies by gross revenue operate tax haven subsidiaries in countries like Bermuda, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

College bro arrested over mac-and-cheese rant at food court (NYP)
A University of Connecticut student has gotten into a confrontation with a campus food court manager who wouldn’t let him buy macaroni and cheese with bacon and jalapeno peppers and has been arrested. An obscenity-laced video shows 19-year-old freshman Luke Gatti arguing with and shoving the manager on Sunday. Gatti had been trying to buy the mac and cheese at the university’s student union in Storrs. Police and the manager say he was refused service because he had an open alcohol container. The nine-minute video shows Gatti being tackled by another employee, being arrested by police and spitting at the manager before being led away.

TPG Raises $2 Billion in Real-Estate Fund (WSJ)
Private-equity giant TPG has closed its first high-risk real-estate fund, raising more than $2 billion in commitments at a time when big investors’ appetite for real-estate risk is increasing. TPG, a relatively new player in real-estate investment, began fundraising for the dedicated real-estate fund it just closed in the first half of 2014, with a goal of $1.5 billion to $2 billion. Reaching that goal was challenging, even for a firm as big as TPG, which has a total of $75 billion in assets under management.

Bharara’s loss is a win for ex-hedge fund honcho Steve Cohen (NYP)
The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the government’s appeal of a key insider-trading case weakens the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ongoing civil case against the former hedge-fund titan, legal experts told The Post. The SEC’s civil proceeding against Cohen stems from accusations that he failed to properly supervise Michael Steinberg and other traders at his SAC Capital Advisors hedge fund, which had $14 billion in assets before it pled guilty to insider trading. But Steinberg’s conviction is likely to be tossed because his case is almost exactly identical to that of Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson, whose convictions were overturned by a Manhattan appeals court. In a stunning rebuke to the government, the Supreme Court on Monday let the appeals decision stand...The SEC’s case against Cohen has been stayed seven times at the request of Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara. Most recently, Bharara on Aug. 27 asked the SEC to stay the case again — this time until the Supreme Court decided whether to review the Newman case. The SEC said it would hold off making a decision in its administrative proceeding against Cohen until Nov. 30.

Bain Capital to Close a Hedge Fund (WSJ)
Private-equity firm Bain Capital LLC told investors it would shut down one of its hedge funds, the latest industry closure after a period of turmoil in global markets. The decision follows a period of losses for Bain’s Absolute Return Capital LLC, according to a person familiar with its performance. Absolute Return Capital said in a letter to investors Tuesday that it would return their cash and liquidate because of a “challenging” environment for funds that bet on global economic trends, according to a person familiar with the letter.

Patek Philippe Quietly Runs an Elite (Free!) Watchmaking School in New York (Bloomberg)
If you've been thinking about become a watchmaker, now might be your chance: Patek Philippe is opening the Patek Philippe Horology Programme New York, a free, two-year watchmaking course to train the next generation of specialized watchmakers.

Cops: "Too High" Man Surrounded By Snacks Stash (TSG)
An Ohio man who dialed 911 to report that he was “too high on weed” was found curled up on the floor of his bedroom “surrounded by a plethora of Doritos, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, and Chips Ahoy cookies,” according to a police report. When an officer arrived Friday afternoon at the 22-year-old caller’s Austintown residence, the man’s grandfather directed the cop to an upstairs room. The officer reported that the man “could be heard groaning from a room at the end of the hall.” Upon entering the room, Officer Aaron Franks found the man “laying on the floor, in the fetal position.” The marijuana enthusiast was “surrounded by a plethora of Doritos, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, and Chips Ahoy cookies,” noted Franks. While the man declared that he “smoked too much weed” and was “too high and could not feel his hands,” he declined medical treatment.