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Mitchell C. Berk has been named chief executive of Hilco Consumer Capital LLC, a brand management firm with Polaroid, Sharper Image and Halston among its clients.
Berk takes over from interim CEO Eric Kaup, who is general counsel for parent, Northbrook-based Hilco Trading. Get the full story »
From Bloomberg News | Analysts say that hedge-fund managers, Wall Street’s best compensated and supposedly smartest investors, are reeling from the worst second-quarter performance in a decade, and that hedge funds have scaled back trading as they struggle to figure out where markets are headed. “For many people, it’s a frustrating market given the high volatility and low volumes,” said Aaron Garvey, portfolio manager at MKP Capital Management LLC, a New York-based hedge fund overseeing $3.5 billion.
BP’s recent attempts to get Middle Eastern investors to help plug the leak in its blown-out balance sheet could cause more problems for the embattled British oil company. Increased investments in BP from the Middle East could trigger reviews in Washington, given the company’s U.S. subsidiary, BP America, which drills for oil and natural gas through government leases and sells gasoline and other products to consumers and businesses.
A government program to bail out banks at the height of the financial crisis has so far turned a profit, according to a report by investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. The Capital Purchase Program, part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, has generated an average return of 10 percent on the initial investment in 61 banks that have fully repaid the aid, said the report, issued on Wednesday. Get the full story »
From Bloomberg News | Allstate Corp. Chief Executive Officer Thomas Wilson said he believes “government borrowing is way out of control” and prompt declines in the value of municipal bonds, a major component of Allstate’s holdings. In the last three quarters, Allstate has cut its municipal holdings, which now total about $20.1 billion.
From CNN | BP’s stock price has fallen far enough for the oil company to become an attractive takeover target for its biggest rivals, according to industry analysts.
BP’s stock finished at $28.88 Wednesday, a plunge of more than 50% from its close of $60.09 on April 19, the day before its leased oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers. On Thursday, shares were up more than 3%.
Fred Lucas of JPMorgan believes that investors have overdone it in dumping the stock, cheapening it to an attractive value for buyers – meaning potential parent companies, not just individual investors. Get the full story »
A Goldman Sachs executive told an inquiry panel Thursday that the firm had no regrets about collecting billions of dollars in taxpayer money for correctly predicting the demise of the U.S. housing market.
David Viniar, Goldman’s chief financial officer, said Uncle Sam had an obligation to honor American International Group’s full debts. The firm was entitled to be paid $12.9 billion out of the $182 billion bailout that went to crippled insurance giant AIG — the largest federal rescue. “The government stepped into AIG’s shoes” and therefore had to honor its contract with Goldman, Viniar told the panel investigating the financial meltdown.
Despite its early lead in the fast-growing e-book market, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) faces growing competition from tech giants Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple Inc. (AAPL), according to one analyst.
Marianne Wolk of Susquehanna downgraded Amazon to a neutral rating on Monday. In a note to clients, the analyst cited “intensifying competition” in the e-book market, which is creating more uncertainty around the company’s Kindle business. Get the full story »
The government says it obtained a court order to halt an alleged $34 million Ponzi scheme targeting federal employees and law enforcement agents nationwide with promises of safe investments in a nonexistent bond fund.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said the order issued Thursday by a federal judge in Miami also froze the assets of the estate of the late Kenneth Wayne McLeod, his consulting firm Federal Employee Benefits Group and an affiliated investment firm. The SEC alleges that McLeod and the firms defrauded an estimated 260 investors starting in 1988.
Morningstar Inc. is unveiling new research tools designed to simplify the task of weeding out the plans that have gotten increasingly complex even as they become more popular for their tax breaks. Get the full story »
If you are worried about a job, you want the reports about the economy to get better. If you want to make sure you don’t take a bath on the gold you just bought, you want the economic reports to make investors worry.
At least that’s the impression left by a recent report on gold by Barclays.
The firm’s commodities team concludes; “gold has benefited predominantly from safe-haven buying.” And with the firm’s economists retaining a positive view of the global economy for 2010 and 2011, “a less favorable environment for safe-haven assets could have investors turn lukewarm toward gold.”
From Crain’s Chicago Business | Northwest Community Healthcare has sued Morgan Stanley, charging that the adviser cost it $7 million by investing in subprime mortgages.
The head of a new exchange fighting to keep Congress from halting his plans to list movie futures is offering an advisory board seat to the head of the Hollywood opposition.
Robert Swagger, chief executive of the Trend Exchange, discussed the idea in Washington this week when he met with the lawmakers negotiating a final financial regulatory bill. Get the full story »
