Ken Griffin Says Dow Drop ‘Modest’ as Geithner Looks Back on ’08 (Bloomberg)
Organizers of the annual gala for the Museum of American Finance said they were glad it hadn’t been scheduled for Monday, when the Dow plunged 1,175 points. Instead, on Tuesday at Cipriani Wall Street, guests opined on the stock market with a day’s perspective. Ken Griffin said the drop was a “modest correction in what has been a fairly frothy stock market,” and it’s “probably constructive” because it will change how investors behave. “A little less growth frenzy, and a little more need to protect, tends to be good in the long run,” Griffin said in an interview. “To the extent this takes some of the wind out of the speculative frenzy, that’s good for the economy.” The founder of Citadel Investment Group, a hedge fund with $27 billion in assets under management, and Citadel Securities, the New York Stock Exchange’s largest designated market maker, also interpreted what went down just after 3 p.m., when the Dow dropped 800 points in 10 minutes.
The Crypto Comeback Of Former Hedge Fund Billionaire Michael Novogratz (Forbes)
A well-known macro hedge fund manager, Michael Novogratz, who hit the Forbes billionaires list in 2007 before the ensuing economic meltdown, seems to have pulled off a nifty comeback. He began investing in crypto in 2013 and left Fortress Investment Group in 2015 to focus on the space. Given his background, Novagratz approached crypto as a trader. “The guys who have done the best are the true believers who don’t have the speculative DNA,” says Novogratz, 53. “If I had literally not sold my Ethereum when it was at $15, I probably would have made–I can’t tell you how much because it would make me sick.”
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Paul Tudor Jones Says We Are in the ‘Throes of a Burgeoning Financial Bubble’ (CNBC)
Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, who called the October 1987 crash, believes markets are in a dangerous financial bubble thanks to Federal Reserve’s “obsession” with inflation targeting. The investor lambasted what he called an “arbitary” 2 percent inflation target set by the central bank, a goal he views as both outdated and dangerous. “We are in the throes of a burgeoning financial bubble,” Jones warned clients in a note obtained by CNBC. “In the U.S., this obsession on inflation targeting has lately been taken to a new level as former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke has floated the idea of a price-level targeting mandate for the Fed. That means the central bank would allow inflation to remain above 2 percent to ‘make up’ for periods when inflation is too low.”
Chipotle Expects Fewer Restaurant Customers Through July, Shares Fall (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (CMG.N) said on Tuesday the number of visitors to its restaurants fell in the fourth quarter and would continue to decline through the middle of the year, sending shares of the burrito chain down 5 percent. Chipotle’s latest earnings performance is likely to test investor patience, especially that of its largest one Pershing Square Capital Management, a $9 billion hedge fund run by William Ackman that has a 10 percent stake in the chain.
Blockchain Project Raises $61 Million from Andreessen Horowitz, U.S. Hedge Fund (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A non-profit organization that wants to develop a more decentralized internet using blockchain has raised $61 million in funding from U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and hedge fund Polychain Capital, it said on Wednesday. DFINITY Stiftung wants to create what it calls an “internet computer,” an open network that serves as a large virtual mainframe computer in cyberspace. That would allow decentralized versions of many online technology services such as Uber, Dropbox, and eBay, according to a company statement.
