DoubleLine LLC, the L.A. money management firm launched by star bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach after his ouster from TCW Group on Dec. 4, has hired away the head of TCW’s mutual funds arm -- bringing to more than 40 the number of TCW staffers who’ve jumped ship in two [...]
--- The dollar is the new strongman of world currencies, and some chart-watchers think this turn in the buck definitely has legs. Great for our purchasing power, but not for our exporters or that foreign-stock mutual fund in your 401(k). Another sign of the sentiment shift: The [...]
At least until the new year.
The dollar’s three-week-old rebound gained steam Thursday, hammering traders who figured the greenback had no shot at reviving any time soon.
Instead, fresh worries about debt troubles outside the U.S. helped trigger another [...]
--- The Senate Banking Committee votes to give Ben S. Bernanke a second term as Federal Reserve chairman, but Bernie Sanders has another idea: early retirement.
--- For shareholders, Citigroup's attempt to exit TARP has been a bust.
--- Delayed reaction: The [...]
Cedar Fair, which owns Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park and other amusement parks nationwide, agreed late Wednesday to a $2.4-billion buyout by private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
The deal follows a poor summer for Cedar Fair as the lousy economy clipped park attendance. The Sandusky, Ohio, company’s [...]
Bill Watkins, who runs the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, goes out on a limb today: He says the state should start discussing contingency plans with the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve for the day California defaults on its debt.
“In my [...]
Federal Reserve policymakers today reiterated their pledge to keep short-term interest rates near zero for an “extended period,” but also reminded financial markets that most of the special lending programs created during the worst of the credit crunch will be terminated on Feb. 1.
No real surprises on either count. Now [...]
--- It’s Fed meeting day (policy statement due at 11:15 a.m. PST), and Chairman Ben Bernanke is Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.” Some Americans apparently would disagree.
--- Meanwhile, former Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder tells us all to lighten up about the economy. "Net job [...]
The bankrupt parent of Washington Mutual Bank asked the judge in its reorganization case to allow for an expansion of a probe into the circumstances immediately leading up to the September 2008 failure.
From the Puget Sound Business Journal:
A filing in the Washington Mutual bankruptcy case says that new evidence [...]
Many of the world’s governments borrowed and spent with abandon this year to keep their economies afloat. And investors mostly were happy to oblige, providing enough demand for sovereign bonds to keep a lid on longer-term interest rates.
But now what? Moody’s Investors Service is out with a preview of the [...]
--- This week’s Federal Reserve meeting marks the one-year anniversary of zero short-term interest rates. No way rates are going up at this meeting, which wraps up on Wednesday. But the latest inflation numbers are giving the bond market the creeps today.
--- The dollar’s rally [...]
Mexico’s credit rating took another hit today, edging closer to “junk” status, on worries about the country’s growing budget deficit and dwindling oil revenue.
But stock and currency investors continue to give Mexico the benefit of the doubt in the short run. Some investors may well wonder why the country deserves [...]
Star bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach, fired by L.A. money manager TCW Group on Dec. 4, said Monday he would partner with Oaktree Capital Management to launch a new investment firm.
The agreement with Oaktree will unite Gundlach with a group of former TCW executives who broke away from the firm [...]
Some highlights from the investor conference call held this morning by Tad Rivelle, who took over the reins of most of TCW Group's bond funds after the big L.A. money manager unexpectedly ousted veteran investment chief Jeffrey Gundlach one week ago:
--- Redemptions from TCW's flagship Total Return Bond fund, [...]
For the moment, Tad Rivelle’s success as a money manager may be judged less by what he makes than by what he keeps.
One week ago, Rivelle and his L.A. firm, Metropolitan West Asset Management, agreed to a buyout by larger cross-town rival TCW Group, and immediately took responsibility for most [...]
L.A. money manager TCW Group, which fired its star bond fund manager last Friday, will hold a conference call on Friday with his replacement to address investors’ questions and concerns.
Tad Rivelle, TCW’s new chief investment officer for high-grade bonds and also the new manager of the firm’s popular TCW [...]
Remember that 10% stock market “correction” that much of Wall Street was anticipating a few months ago – but it never came?
Hope springs eternal: The percentage of investment newsletters expecting a 10%-or-so decline, or correction, in the short term now has reached the highest level in 17 years, according to [...]
The British government has decided to play hardball with the banking industry on bonuses: In a move that had been rumored in recent days, Finance Minister Alistair Darling today slapped a 50% surtax on payouts above a set level made from now through April 5.
From Bloomberg News:
The latest in the ongoing saga of the bitter split between L.A. money manager TCW Group and its chief investment officer, Jeffrey Gundlach, who was fired by TCW on Friday amid a power struggle:
--- Investor redemptions from TCW’s flagship mutual fund, TCW Total Return Bond, continued Tuesday but slowed [...]
The sell-off in gold picked up steam Tuesday as some global investors ran back to the dollar, the metal’s nemesis.
With the end of the year approaching, some investors also may be figuring it’s a logical time to book some of their gold profits and wait for a better buying opportunity, [...]
Chief executives of the biggest American companies see much more reason to be bullish about rising sales in 2010, a new survey shows.
Despite that optimism, most have no plans to increase U.S. hiring in the next six months.
The Business Roundtable’s quarterly CEO Economic Outlook survey, released today, shows that [...]
TCW Group’s decision to oust its star bond manager triggered heavy cash withdrawals from the L.A. firm's flagship mutual fund, TCW Total Return Bond, on Monday, people familiar with the situation say.
Three sources put total redemptions from the fund in the $1-billion range. That would represent about 8.3% of the [...]
The bitter divorce between L.A. money manager TCW Group and its former chief investment officer, Jeffrey Gundlach, dealt a quick blow on Monday to one group of investors: shareholders of the TCW Strategic Income bond fund.
Thanks to a sharp rebound in the prices of the mortgage-backed bonds that make [...]
Bond fund titan Pimco is jumping the fence -- into the stock-picking business.
The Newport Beach firm, perhaps the world’s best-known bond investor, today said it would expand into actively managed stock funds.
The firm also said it had hired Neel Kashkari, who headed the U.S. Treasury’s bank bailout program until departing [...]
The nasty breakup between big L.A. money manager TCW Group and its now-ex chief investment officer, Jeffrey Gundlach, is bringing back memories of another highly publicized TCW divorce: the one that led to the creation of Oaktree Capital Management by five TCW fund managers in 1995.
And as with the TCW/Oaktree split, [...]
Near-zero short-term interest rates are murder on risk-averse savers who have cash in banks and money market mutual funds. Now imagine that the Federal Reserve might keep rates at these levels not just through 2010 but beyond because of the anemic economy.
Given that possibility, my weekend column in The Times [...]
But third-quarter supply and demand data from the World Gold Council show that the surge in the metal’s price to record highs ($1,146.40 an ounce as of Friday) hasn’t been [...]
Uncle Sam is getting yet another break on his borrowing costs.
Suddenly, cash is again fighting to get into the haven of shorter-term Treasury securities, driving yields down to levels last seen after the first stage of the financial-system meltdown a year ago.
It may look like another fear-driven panic, but this time [...]
Rep. Ron Paul, the Texas Republican who is perhaps the Federal Reserve’s most implacable enemy, scored a big win Thursday on Capitol Hill: The House Financial Services Committee approved adding to a financial-system reform bill Paul’s provision to begin federal reviews of the central bank’s operations, including its interest-rate [...]
California today pared back its last big tax-free bond sale of 2009, citing legal questions about funding for a prison project.
Treasurer Bill Lockyer sold $743 million in lease revenue bonds for the state Public Works Board instead of the $1.34 billion that had been planned.
The deal was slashed in size [...]
For what it’s worth: Fidelity Investments says the average 401(k) account balance of the 11 million investors for whom it keeps records rose to $60,700 as of Sept. 30, surpassing the $58,400 average of a year earlier -- which was just before the financial-system meltdown accelerated.
Although financial markets have rebounded [...]
The good news in the sell-off that has clipped California tax-free municipal bond prices over the last six weeks is that the market now should be harder to shock.
So for muni investors, the report Wednesday that Sacramento already may be facing a $21-billion budget gap over the current and [...]
One of the biggest fears as the stock market began to rebound late last winter was that sellers would swarm just as soon as the advance lost its momentum. Who would want to risk hanging around for another meltdown?
Instead, this now eight-month-old rally has been powered by classic bull-market thinking [...]
Goldman Sachs Group’s charm offensive continues.
From Bloomberg News:
Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., apologized for the firm’s role in some of the activities leading to the financial crisis.
"We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret," Blankfein, 55, [...]
There may come a day when fears about foreigners wanting to dump their U.S. Treasury securities will amount to something. But we clearly aren’t there yet, even as the dollar keeps sinking in value.
Net foreign purchases of Treasury bonds and notes in September totaled $44.7 billion, up from $28 billion [...]
The Money & Co. blog has made some acquisitions: Three other business-section blogs -- California Consumer, L.A. Land and the Up to Speed auto blog -- have merged into Money & Co. beginning this week.
If you want to go to posts filed just under those three general topics, you can [...]
Former L.A. Lakers great Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who has spent his post-basketball career developing commercial real estate ventures in underserved urban neighborhoods, now is targeting another market that he figures is in need of help: lending to mid-size companies.
Johnson’s firm, Magic Johnson Enterprises, is teaming with L.A. money manager TCW [...]
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke reiterated Monday that the central bank now knows enough to be worried about asset bubbles.
He just doesn't see any in the U.S. at the moment despite some investors' concerns about stock market valuations and the still-ravenous global appetite for Treasury securities.
The formula is working again: The seemingly incongruous combination of better-than-expected economic data and a falling dollar is driving the stock market to new one-year highs today.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has surged decisively through the 1,100 mark, which is where it had stalled in late October and [...]
How many people would dare to badger their employer for a raise in this economy?
My weekend column in the Times looks at the risk that the massive global labor glut poses to the wages and benefits of the still-employed.
Wage levels have long been "sticky," even in recessions. But with more [...]
Besides understanding his own state’s finances, New York Gov. David Paterson apparently has an excellent grasp of California’s fiscal situation.
So much so, in fact, that Paterson feels confident speculating publicly about the probability of California eventually defaulting on its municipal bond debt.
In a Bloomberg Radio interview on Thursday, Paterson described his plans for [...]
Has the "carry trade" become too tired to carry on in the short term?
Thursday’s session in global markets saw a reversal of the recent rush into gold, emerging markets and stocks in general, and a rebound in the beaten-down dollar.
That spurred talk that the army of hedge funds and other [...]
Shares of Playboy Enterprises Inc. have surged today on a report that the company might sell itself.
The publisher’s Class B stock was up 79 cents, or 28%, to $3.65 about 11:15 a.m. PST, after Bloomberg News said brand-licensing firm Iconix Brand Group Inc. was in deal talks with [...]
If misery loves company, the Pew Center on the States public policy think-tank has some comforting words for Californians: Though our fiscal problems "are in a league of their own . . . some of the same factors driving California toward the brink of insolvency also are hurting an array [...]
Burbank-based online horse-betting firm Youbet.com Inc. said Wednesday that it agreed to a buyout by racetrack owner Churchill Downs Inc., which also controls a rival online-betting operation.
The cash-and-stock deal is worth $127 million, though Youbet.com shareholders are getting a price well below their stock’s recent peak.
With attendance at [...]
American International Group Inc. Chief Exeuctive Robert Benmosche today sought to play down published reports that’s he’s ready to jump ship because of frustration with his federal masters over executive pay issues.
After a Wall Street Journal story said that Benmosche was threatening to leave AIG -- just three months after [...]
Despite Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s latest emphatic statement about the need to "maintain a strong dollar," financial markets know he’s not serious.
The Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, pays lip service to the idea of keeping the greenback strong even as the currency continues to lose value [...]
The municipal bond market’s message to California: Enough with the borrowing already!
Over the last seven weeks the state has sold more than $21 billion of short- and long-term debt for budget-related reasons and to finance voter-approved infrastructure projects.
That flood -- in a period when muni bond yields nationwide already were [...]
An index of small-business optimism reached a 13-month high in October, but has a long way to go to return to some semblance of normalcy, according to a report Tuesday from the National Federation of Independent Business.
The group said its members overall continued to report weak sales and more [...]
