Janet Yellen says some stocks are bubbly, but proposes to do nothing, except watch. Hint: You could raise margins rules for buying stocks, currently a ridiculously low 50%.
Hamas rejects Egypt’s cease-fire idea. Rockets continue. This is a war it can’t win. But why inject logic into any of this?
Syria’s CEO continues to destroy his own country. Not too sure why. Can anyone get inside the nuts of the middle east? Aleppo is Syria’s largest city. It’s ow basically in ruins. Read what it’s like to live there. Really depressing. Click here.
Deliver Alpha conference is on today. Hedgies tout their favorite trades. From Business Insider, here’s a rundown of how last year’s stock picks did since the 2013 conference:
- Larry Robbins (long Walgreens): Robbins, the best performing fund manager of 2013, said Walgreens was a winner from Obamacare. The stock is up more than 43%.
- Kris Jenner (long Vertex, Gilead Sciences, and Pharmacyclics): Jenner, who runs Rock Springs, saw Vertex go up 15%, Gilead go up 55% and Pharmacyclics go down 6% since last year’s conference.
- Leon Cooperman (10 long picks): Value investor Cooperman presented 10 of his favorite stocks last year. Here’s how they performed: Express Scripts (up 2.6%), Qualcomm (up 26%), Thermo Fisher Scientific (up 34%), Qualicorp (up 74%), Sandridge Energy (up 26%), Arbor Realty Trust (down 3%), Atlas Resource Partners (down 10%), Chimera Investment Corp (up 6%), THL Credit (down 12%), and KKR Financial Holdings (up 5%).
- Nelson Peltz (Pepsi and Mondelez): Activist investor Nelson Peltz said that he wanted Pepsi to buy Mondelez. A deal hasn’t happened. Pepsi‘s stock is up 7%, while Mondelez stock is up 26%.
- Carl Icahn (long Herbalife): Icahn famously snapped up a massive long stake in Herbalife after his long-time rival Bill Ackman publicly declared he’s short $1 billion worth of the stock. Icahn has said that he thinks Ackman will be the victim of the “mother of all short squeezes.” Since Delivering Alpha 2013, shares of Herbalife are up 23%.
- Jim Chanos (short Caterpillar): Chanos said he was betting against Caterpillar because of “commodities super cycle headwinds.” So far, that short hasn’t played out in his favor. Shares of Caterpillar have risen more than 27%.
- Mark Kingdon (long Aegerion Pharmaceuticals): Kingdon’s Aegerion pick tanked 63% since last year’s conference.
Harry Newton who spent yesterday dealing with the junk of private and small companies. As I’ve written endlessly in recent weeks, stay away from small private company investments. they don’t lead to a peaceful, nor predictable life. I installed new brakes on my bicycle yesterday. Best decision in years. I can now stop.
Overall, I haven’t been impressed with hedge fund manager Robbins…Harry, have you thought about limiting access to your website to those who invest in hedge funds, start ups & the like? You could require a key code. Readers would have to prove to you via private email that they have a certain net worth, or that they invest in hedge funds. Or, perhaps, that their families came here on the Mayflower. You have too much riff raft on this site.
If it weren’t for all of those wasteful Republican ideas over those many years today Detroit would be a paradise…..simple as that.
Tongue in cheek?