Hedge Fund News: Nelson Peltz, David Einhorn, D.E. Shaw

Greenlight’s David Einhorn: We’re Adding Shorts (CNBC)
If corporate earnings are cooked, so is the market. That’s how billionaire investor David Einhorn is betting on stocks—a view that has lost his hedge fund firm Greenlight Capital money so far this year. “All told, there is a good chance earnings will actually shrink this year,” Greenlight’s most recent letter to investors said. “We think the market is too high if earnings have, in fact, peaked for the cycle, and we have reduced our net exposure by adding more shorts.”

Emerging-Market Stocks Resume Rally on China Bets as Ruble Falls (Bloomberg)
Emerging-market stocks rose for the first time in three days as Chinese equities returned to a seven-year high and construction companies led gains in Dubai. Russia’s ruble weakened for a fourth day.“Emerging-market stocks are rallying on China easing expectations and also a strong close to the U.S. markets yesterday,” Michael Wang, a London-based strategist at Amiya Capital LLP, a hedge fund investing in developing countries, said by e-mail. “It is a delayed reaction to the various easing announcements from China.”

Activists Raised Another $3.9 Billion in First Quarter (The Wall Street Journal)
Money is still pouring in to activism. In the first quarter, activist investors attracted $3.9 billion in new net assets, according to hedge-fund research firm HFR. Along with investment gains, that brings the aggregate activist war chest to $127.5 billion. That’s a record aggregate total, and nearly double where the industry was at the end of 2012, when it had $65.5 billion.

Naphtal’s $4.2 Billion Currency Hedge Fund Returns 15% in 2015 (Bloomberg)
Warren Naphtal’s $4.2 billion currency fund gained 15.4 percent in the first quarter after wagering on a strong U.S. dollar versus the euro, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Naphtal, a former head derivatives trader at Putnam Investments, returned 8.2 percent in March, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private.