Opening Bell: 1.9.17
When The Feds Went After The Hedge-Fund Legend Steven A. Cohen (New Yorker)
Cohen had an aggressive P.R. firm on retainer, ready to counterattack the second Bharara made his announcement. “The tiny fraction of wrongdoers does not represent the 3,000 honest men and women who have worked at the firm during the past 21 years,” S.A.C.’s public-relations firm said in a statement. “S.A.C. has never encouraged, promoted or tolerated insider trading.” In his office, Bharara and his colleagues couldn’t believe what they were reading. S.A.C. had just signed a guilty plea admitting that it had, in fact, been built on a culture of securities fraud. The chief of Bharara’s securities unit called Cohen’s lawyers and told them to retract the statement, which they did. Then they released a new one that said, “We greatly regret this conduct occurred.”
Magic Eludes Bubble-Caller Jeremy Grantham, as Assets at GMO Drop by More Than $40 Billion (WSJ)
Investors are bailing on Jeremy Grantham once again. Mr. Grantham, co-founder and chief investment strategist of Boston money manager Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co., has been out of step with the market several times during the firm's four decades. GMO has usually rebounded, with the 78-year-old investor earning acclaim with asset-bubble calls ahead of Wall Street busts in 2000 and 2008.
Goldman Sachs is Now Debunking “Fake News” (FT)
Fake news. It’s the hot new thing all the kids are talking about. There’s an entire epidemic of it going around, according to Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest and most cult-like hedge fund, Bridgewater. And now Goldman Sachs is on the case, “Debunking the ‘fake news’ of the imminent great rotation from bonds to stocks.”
This Goldman Sachs Chart Sums Up the Global Fallout From the 2008 Financial Crisis (BI)
The global policy response to the financial system's near collapse in 2008 from central banks has been to reduce interest rates and pump liquidity into the financial system. This has seen the price of stocks and bonds increase rapidly without having the same effect on the real economy. While financial assets have boomed since 2009, wages and consumer prices have stagnated.
Tourneau Store Near Trump Tower Loses $2 million In Sales (NYP)
President-elect Donald Trump is no friend of troubled Tourneau. The Tourneau TimeMachine on 57th and Madison Avenue has lost about $2 million in sales because it is close to the Trump Tower and the traffic it is creating on 57th and 5th, a source close to the company said.
Wall Street's Chinese Chimera (BBG)
Wall Street is split on the value of having a Chinese joint venture.Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG are planning to raise their stakes in their securities operations in the country to the maximum 49 percent allowed, just weeks after JP Morgan Chase & Co. severed ties with its local partner amid frustration over a lack of control.
Dalio: "Ray, I wanted to thank you personally so much for your generous support. I'm always so touched that you continue to think of me and so many other people at this time of year. I'm always at a loss of what to give back to you as you've given so much. I want you to know how much Bridgewater, your principles, and our way of being have meant to me and have helped me, especially through this past year. I've had one of the toughest years of my life personally, and I can't tell you how grateful I am to have the instilling and learning of values from this company as well as amazing people who have been there to help and to support me. Everyone will have tough times. I know that, and your principles have helped to guide and helped me make sense of things. I know I can handle anything that life throws at me, and I'm a stronger person for having worked here for so many years. I can't tell you how grateful I am for that. The principles that I rehearsed in my head often, over the past year: Have trust in truth, and you have nothing to fear from truth as well as everyone gets what they deserve out of life. I know it was the combination of the principles I have lived with now and are just part of me that have truly rounded things out for me through the rough waters. I truly mean what I say and have said to my parents often over the past six months. Thank God for Bridgewater and you, Ray. While I'm sure you do not realize the extent of my gratitude to you, please know that I'm eternally grateful for you, all of your teachings and for this amazing company that I have been honored to be part of in the past 12 years, and I hope will be my home for the rest of my career. I will also do everything I can to make it and keep it great. I love you, Ray. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas."
I get a lot of those.
Blodget: That's a great letter.
TV Report on Accidental Amazon Orders Triggers Attempted Amazon Orders Across San Diego (Gizmodo)
According to San Diego’s XETV-TDT, the trouble started on Thursday, when the station aired a story about a 6-year-old girl who reportedly bought a $170 dollhouse by asking her family’s Alexa-enabled Amazon Echo, “Can you play dollhouse with me and get me a dollhouse?”“I loved the little girl’s take on it,” said anchor Jim Patton at the time. “‘Alexa ordered me a dollhouse.’” That, apparently, was enough to prompt complaints from viewers “all over San Diego,” who claimed their own Alexa devices tried to place orders for dollhouses in response.