● Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
By Sheelah Kolhatkar
Review via Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Steve Cohen had a target on his back. The government was determined to prove that the hedge fund manager, known on Wall Street for eye-popping annual returns of 30 percent, made some of his billions trading on inside information. Sheelah Kolhatkar, a staff writer at the New Yorker (and a former correspondent for this magazine), has written a fast-paced tale of how the feds worked for almost a decade to build a case against him, and why they couldn’t indict him, in Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
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Monthly Archives: February 2017
January Employment Rises Sharply
Private-sector employment rebounded in January, beating expectations by a wide margin, according to this morning’s release from the US Labor Department. US companies added 237,000 workers last month, the strongest monthly increase since last July and well above December’s modest gain of 165,000.
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Financial Stocks Take The Lead As Energy Stumbles
The recent decline for the formerly high-flying energy patch has left financial stocks in the lead among US equity sectors for one-year total return, based on a set of proxy ETFs.
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Risk Premia Forecasts: Major Asset Classes | 2 February 2017
The projected risk premium for the Global Market Index (GMI) was unchanged for a second month in a row in January, holding steady at the highest level in over two years. GMI, an unmanaged market-value weighted mix of the major asset classes, is currently projected to earn an annualized 4.3% over the long term – matching the two previous estimates (here and here).
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ADP: US Employment Growth Rebounded Sharply In January
Is the labor market re-accelerating? It’s easier to make that case after reading today’s January update of the ADP Employment Report.
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Major Asset Classes | January 2017 | Performance Review
Most markets around the world continued to rise in 2017’s opening month, building on last year’s broadly positive close. Leading the way higher in January: emerging-market stocks (MSCI EM), with foreign high-yield bonds in second place (Markit Global ex-US High Yield). Last month’s bottom performer: US real estate investment trusts via MSCI US REIT, which is unchanged so far this year.
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