Main News

 

Oil soars to record above $117
April 21, 2008 08:07 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Crude oil prices surged above $117, setting
a new record high on Monday because of worries of supply disruptions
from major producers and comments by OPEC reiterating there
is no need to raise output.
http://links.reuters.com/r/QO4QB/XZAGI/UIRTX/JJUVV/7PSM7/YT/t

 

Speculators not to blame for grain prices, U.S. board to say
Hedge funds and other speculators are not responsible for rising agricultural commodities prices, U.S. regulators will say this week. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is meeting farmers and traders on Tuesday and will say prices have been driven by high demand, weather, government trade restrictions and the impact of the weaker dollar. Financial Times (20 Apr.)

 

Equity hedge fund strategies show first outflows
Financial News Online US - London,UK
The most common hedge fund strategy showed its first outflows to date with $30bn (€18.8bn) withdrawn in the first quarter of the year. ...

 

Citi’s Hedge Fund Adds to Q1 Writedowns
Hedge Fund Net - New York,NY,USA
by Paula Schaap, Reporter , April 21, 2008 In among the red ink on Citi’s first quarter loss of $5.1 billion was a $202 million loss that it took for Old ...
See all stories on this topic

 

Shelter in Emerging-Market Currencies Associated with volatility, such investments may diversify larger portfolios.
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB120878056619731083.html?mod=djemBF

 

Until now, losses at many banks have come from multibillion dollar write-downs on toxic debt. But analysts believe the costs of building bad-loan reserves could cause just as much pain -- and for a lot more banks.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120882005523032941.html?mod=djemheard

 

Why The Global Credit Squeeze Could Hit European Emerging Market Sovereigns Harder Than Others
Emerging market sovereigns have so far withstood the current global credit dislocations. However, if the squeeze gets tighter and investors get even more jittery and risk averse, these countries will also feel the pain--but far from equally. We believe Eastern European sovereigns are the most exposed, while Asian and Latin American sovereigns are generally better insulated against the dearth of financial flows that may be in store if the global economy declines more sharply.
To learn more, click or copy and paste the URL below:
(subscription required)
http://standardandpoors.rsys1.net/servlet/cc6?kHiQACTTQTVsLgHxhilpuHQJhuV2VY

 

Intelligence Guidance: Week of April 20, 2008
April 18, 2008 2057 GMT
The following are internal Stratfor documents produced to provide high-level guidance to our analysts. These documents are not forecasts, but rather a series of guidelines for understanding and evaluating events, as well as suggestions on areas for focus.
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/intelligence_guidance_week_april_20_2008

 

Blackstone Profits Big From Unit Sale
Just 10 months after taking the German container group Gerresheimer public, Blackstone exited its three-year-old investment last week, making about 7.5 times it original equity outlay.

 

BNP eyes US expansion with BofA prime brokerage acquisition
BNP Paribas is in advanced talks to buy the equities prime brokerage unit of Bank of America in a move that would boost the French group's presence in the US and enable its US rival to scale down its investment banking business.  (Financial Times)
http://mail2.efnmail.co.uk/r/357130/MTk4MTI1OjE3MDQ2/

 

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Yield Curve Corner

 

Bernanke Grapples With Greenspan as Volcker Scorns Fed Bailouts
Bloomberg - USA
When Ben S. Bernanke rose to speak, he said that the Federal Reserve, of which he was then a governor, had come around to Friedman's view that the central ...

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Natural Disaster Corner

 

Climate Prediction  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/predictions.php

World Meterological Organization http://severe.worldweather.org/

Tornadoes: http://www.disastercenter.com/tornado.htm

Great Sat Pictures of events: http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Current/FSHSsouthwest112_G11.jpg

 

Web guru targets malaria with social network site
April 21, 2008 04:56 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - The British entrepreneur who sold a soccer
Web site at the age of 17 for $40 million has switched his attention
to help launch a social networking site on Sunday designed to
fight malaria.
http://links.reuters.com/r/O8MIT/S0O3L/L7KJV/KR1O6/63Q3O/YT/t

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Iranian Situation and Other Man Made Disasters

 

U.S. and Iran find common ground in Iraq's Shiite conflict
International Herald Tribune Mon, 21 Apr 2008 8:12 AM PDT
In the Iraqi government's fight to defeat the Shiite militia of Moktada al-Sadr in the southern city of Basra, Iran and the United States find themselves in agreement. That highly unusual alignment does not hold true, however, farther north in Baghdad.

 

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Opalesque’s Corner

 

- Opalesque Exclusive: African landscape (4) - Oryx explains why they invest in exchanges outside Africa, Nigeria`s oil production may fall by a third unless government boost investment
- Fund launches: Opalesque Exclusive: Man launches cap guarantee product based on AHL and RMF, Khamsa Capital to launch Middle East L/S equity hedge fund, Dalton launches mortgage hedge fund, Ermitage launches UK-listed products linked to funds of hedge funds
- Trends: Rate of fund re-openings speeds up
- Assets: Lombard Odier seeks $1bn for hedge fund, BlueBay`s managed assets increase to $18.7bln but HF assets ($6.2bln) lost 0.47%
- Unidentified macro HF sold $10bln position in cash two-year notes and bought billions in 10-year notes, other funds take hit
- Fixed Income: Muni bonds safe with high yields, Two-year Treasury notes are down, but not out, Clash of the bubbles: Commodities, bond yields drift apart
- Commodities: Soros says commodity `bubble` still in `growth phase`, Can gold hit $2,000? (video), Emerging market oil use exceeds U.S. as prices rise, CFTC: Speculators cleared of blame over surging agricultural prices
- Manager Profiles: Interview with GoldenTree`s Steve Tananbaum, Crispin Henderson started with Convivo`s acquisition in Threadneedle`s aims to increase hedge fund AUM
- Bulldog: Phil Goldstein to start pro-hedge fund group
- Credit Crunch Update: Bank of America and National City Corporation said to be trying to raise more capital, Citigroup`s alternatives division reports net loss of $509m, allows Old Lane investors to pull out, Ex-Credit Suisse CEO says international financial system was close to the brink in March, UBS details subprime failings for banking regulator, Western Asset falls victim to the credit crisis, Traders bet on more falls to come for banks
- Comments: Woody Brock: Common risk management models are on based fundamentally misguided ideas, When transparency leads to trouble
- People: Opalesque Exclusive: 3 Degrees hires Jeffrey Tolk as principal, Halbis appoints Shameema Yousuf as manager on Halbis Commodities Alpha Fund, WR Capital hires former Merrill executives, JPMorgan names Bear`s Booth vice chair of research, Dubai Financial Services Authority CEO to retire end of 2008
- Survey: How Hedge fund managers are spending their cash
- Legal: Updates: Ex-Refco boss found guilty of fraud, Headstart vs. SEC
- Tax Update: New York City may consider taxing carried interest, UK tax attacks send companies packing
- Europe: Brevan Howard considers moving headquarters to Switzerland, Bank of England plans to boost credit market meltdown with GBP50bln ($99.9bln) rescue package
- Israel seeks to become finance hub
- Asia: Tokyo wants to be Asia`s London, Japan life insurers embrace hedge funds for returns, India`s futures look promising, AsianInvestor 2008 Investment Performance Awards: fixed income winners,  Middle East money starts flowing to Asia
- Latin America: Comment: New resilience should conquer short-term doubts in Latin America
- Emerging Markets: Emerging markets facing bust as global economy slows - Global Insight
- Exchanges / Trading Platforms: Investment banks plan to set up clearing house for credit derivatives
- Events: 1st annual hedge fund charity pro-am golf tournament, Private equity trumps hedge funds - in basketball
- MF Global stock up 25% on vow to tighten control, Comment: Hey Kev, it`s cappuccino time!
- Activist News: Centaurus and Pardus control 22.34% of Atos, Trian `very concerned` about Wendy`s current direction, TCI sees `massive opportunities` in Japan, even after rejection, TCI recommends avoiding Japan, `unlikely to make further investments in Japan`
- News Briefs: LaSalle to launch pan-European fund, continental European property outlook positive
- And Finally: More and more women are taking vacations and leaving their men behind to enjoy watching sports and drinking beer in their underwear
- Logon: http://www.opalesque.com/index.php?act=archive

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Misc. Items of Interest

 

Climate Change on the Agenda: Renewable Energy and Biofuels Country Attractiveness Indices Q4 2007
During this webcast, Jonathan Johns, author of the Ernst & Young Renewable Energy and Biofuels Country Attractiveness Indices Q4 2007, and Ben Warren, director in the Ernst & Young Renewables, Waste and Clean Energy group, provides an insight into the effect of the growing differences in legislation on the US and EU renewable energy sectors.
View webcast archive or download podcast

 

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Funnies, Facts, Quotes, etc….

 

chimera ky-MIR-uh, noun:

1. (Capitalized) A fire-breathing she-monster represented as having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.
2. Any imaginary monster made up of grotesquely incongruous parts.
3. An illusion or mental fabrication; a grotesque product of the imagination.
4. An individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution, produced as a result of organ transplant, grafting, or genetic engineering.

 

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Conference, Courses, Books, Papers

 

Great Research Sites:

 

Merrill Lynch research Link to full report including important disclosures see example

 

John Mauldin’s Weekly Analysis

 

James Altucher’s Website:

 

Other useful sites:

 

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Index Corner

 

The CSFB/Tremont Hedge Fund Index www.hedgeindex.com.

The Cogent Dynamic Averages http://www.cogenthedge.com/home/inv_strategy.asphttp://www.cogenthedge.com/home/inv_strategy.asp

The Dow Jones Indices: http://www.djhedgefundindexes.com/index.cfm?event=viewPremiumContent (free registration)

HFRX Indices https://www.hedgefundresearch.com/hfrx_reg/index.php?fuse=login&1170880431

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Regulatory Info

 

 

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Disclaimer

 

The information contained in this document does not constitute an offer or solicitation to sell any security or other type of vehicles to or by anyone in any jurisdictions, nor should it be regarded as a contractual document. Under no circumstances should the information provided on this document be considered as financial advice, or as a sufficient basis on which to make investment decisions. The information contained herein has been gathered by Investor DNA, LLC from sources deemed reliable as of the date of publication, but no warranty of accuracy or completeness is given. Investor DNA, LLC is not responsible for and provides no guarantee with respect to any of the information provided herein or through the use of any hypertext link. Past results are no indication of future performance. All information in this newsletter is for educational and informational purposes and does not constitute investment, legal, tax or accounting advice. All materials are the property of the respective publishers, as referenced by header and appropriate hypertext links.