Opening Bell: 4.7.16

Yale Made 93% a Year on Venture Capital in Past Two Decades (Bloomberg)
Yale University’s original $2.7 million investment in LinkedIn Corp. produced $84.4 million in gains for the school’s endowment after the company went public in 2011. It’s one example of how venture capital helped propel performance at the second-richest U.S. college endowment of $25.6 billion. Venture capital earned an annual average of 93 percent over the past 20 years, according to the Ivy League school’s 2015 investment report posted on its website.

Yellen, alongside Fed alum, says rate hikes on track (Reuters)
The U.S. economy is on a solid course with some hints of inflation so the Federal Reserve is on track for further interest rate hikes, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday in a defense of her decision to tighten policy late last year. In a rare spectacle, Yellen spoke on a New York panel alongside her three predecessors who ran the world's most powerful central bank. She said that, seven years after the brutal financial crisis, the U.S. labor market was now "close" to full strength, again arguing that inflation would not be held down much longer by the strong dollar and low oil prices.

Blackstone to Shut Mutual Fund After Fidelity Pulls Out (Bloomberg)
The Blackstone Alternative Multi-Manager Fund will no longer accept new money and will be liquidated by May 31, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The fund’s investment adviser will seek to convert all of its holdings to cash and cash equivalents to meet anticipated redemption requests.

Investors stick with Pfizer CEO after Allergan deal scrapped (Reuters)
While failure on that scale often puts CEOs in jeopardy, 10 investors and portfolio managers told Reuters that Read still has their support. Read, they said, has a deep reservoir of goodwill after tackling many problems he inherited since taking over in 2010, including re-energizing Pfizer's faltering research and development operations. In addition, many of them blame the U.S. government, not Read, for the Allergan deal's demise.

‘American Psycho’ is leaving audiences a bloody mess (NYP)
Audiences at “American Psycho” complained about being splattered with (fake) blood, and the production’s taking precautions. A Schoenfeld Theatre manager sent a memo to staffers saying, “Last night, a patron came to me to complain about being hit by the stage blood. Not only was her sweater stained, but also her Burberry cashmere scarf and more importantly (she cried when she showed it to me) her leather Louis Vuitton bag. I told her that we will pay for the cleaning of her items.” The show’s implementing measures to avoid further carnage.

E.C.B. Rules Out Free Money as Antidote to Falling Prices (NYT)
“It’s not on the table,” Peter Praet, a member of the E.C.B.’s executive board, said of the helicopter idea, so named because of the image of showering money on the populace from the sky. “It’s not even discussed informally,” he said at the conference.

CEO Pay Shrank Most Since Financial Crisis (WSJ)
Median pay for the CEOs of nearly 300 large publicly traded companies slipped 3.8% to $10.8 million last year from $11.2 million in 2014, a Wall Street Journal analysis of compensation data from MyLogIQ found. Half of those CEOs saw total pay either decline or rise by less than 1%—also the worst showing for S&P 500 chiefs since the 2008 crisis.

Morgan Stanley Paints Bleak Outlook for Twitter on Few New Users (Bloomberg)
Morgan Stanley analysts came down hard on Twitter Inc., lowering their forecasts for the social media company’s stock price, on projected slower growth in new users, revenue and earnings. “Engagement and new user trends remain troubling,” the analysts, led by Brian Nowak, said in a note to clients Thursday.

Macaulay Culkin says he’s ‘essentially retired’ from the acting world (NYDN)
"I'm a man in his mid-30s who's essentially retired," the former child star said in a recent sit-down with Vulture. "I kind of go where the wind takes me a little bit." Culkin said he now spends most of his days writing, painting and "whatevering" while continuing to call NYC his home.