News
Each day, DailyAlts tracks major developments across the alternative investment world. Our content is procured from primary contacts in the industry and secondary sources across the web. Our goal is to give readers the most up-to-date news and engaging experience to open new doors and areas of knowledge. Our stories cover nine separate verticals of the alternative investment industry.
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Chipmaker AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) has unveiled a range of innovative AI solutions spanning from data centers to personal computers. The AMD Instinct MI300 Series features data center AI accelerators, while the ROCm 6 open software stack introduces new features supporting Large Language Models (LLMs). Additionally, the Ryzen 8040 Series processors come equipped with Ryzen AI capabilities.
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AT&T Defuses Hedge Fund Elliott Management Pressure With Three-Year Plan
Activist hedge fund Elliott Management took aim at AT&T Corporation in September. Elliott had proposed cost cuts, divestment of certain businesses, and a freeze on further acquisitions. Now, the telecom giant has pushed back with a three-year plan to diffuse Elliott’s activist pressures.
Now, Student Loan Refinance, in Minutes, on the Blockchain
Mike Cagney founded Figure Technologies uses the blockchain to process transactions on its lending platform. The use of the blockchain allows Figure to function paperless, and that helps to speed up its loan procedure.
AECOM-Canyon Partners Raise $500 Million for Flagship Fund
AECOM-Canyon Partners has closed a $500 million fund. The fund is a joint venture between the AECOM and California-based hedge fund Canyon Partners.
ESG ETF Inflows Increase in September
ETFGI, a global research firm, says the uptick in ESG assets continues to accelerate due to booming investor interest. Global environmental, social and governance assets in ETFs and ETPs have reached $47.33 billion.
SoftBank Group Pumps $655 Million into Greensill Capital
Greensill Capital has received a large capital injections from SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund. The tech-focused investment fund gave the eight-year-old financing firm an additional $655 million.
Greensill plans to use the money to finance its international expansion.
Melvin: Recapping the Blackstone Earnings Report
The Blackstone earnings report is always an important quarterly event. Over my years in the investment business, I have learned to watch what people are doing with their money instead of what they say they are doing.
Bitcoin Goes Vertical After Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Pro-Blockchain Remarks
Bitcoin rallied 16% after Chinese President Xi Jinping called for his country to “seize the opportunity” afforded by blockchain.
Speaking at a Politburo Committee session on blockchain technology trends Thursday, Xi told committee members: “We must take the blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies.”
The Cost of Fisher’s Foot-in-Mouth: $2.6 Billion
Investors in Fisher Investments are heading for the exits after Ken Fisher’s lewd comments at a conference earlier this month.
The Employees Retirement System of Texas became the latest in a series of institutional investors to pull funds from Fisher Investments. The pension system is moving out $350 million in protest against Fisher’s sexist remarks against women at an October 8 conference.
Square Launches Share Investments on its Cash App (Even as little as $1)
Square’s Cash App, aimed at the young and the hip, will allow investing in share fractions.
The Square Cash App is a mobile payments app that allows people to transfer money between cellphones, pay for retail purchases, and draw cash via credit card, “Cash Card” or ATM.
Dan Loeb’s Third Point Holds a $700 Million Stake in EssilorLuxottica
Third Point, the New York-based activist hedge fund run by Dan Loeb, has built up a $700 million stake in Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica. It revealed this in its third-quarter investor letter.
The fund also said it saw plenty of potential for growth and profits at EssilorLuxottica, the world’s largest eye-wear company.
PwC Fintech Report Reveals Differences Between FS and TMT Firms
PwC has a new report titled: “Crossing the lines: How fintech is propelling FS and TMT firms out of their lanes.”
A Blockchain P2P Lending System at Scale Could Render London Bankers Irrelevant
According to Business 5.0 expert John Straw, the blockchain could well disrupt the City of London. And put paid to the taxes that the City generates.
An end to the stream of taxes from the City would effectively spell the end of the NHS. Blockchain-based financial services, based on technology such as Ethereum’s, could consign banks to the annals of history.
A.I. Algorithms Predict the Likelihood of Breast Cancer
Dr. Barzilay decided to use artificial intelligence to collect and analyze the available information on breast cancer.
Harnessing artificial intelligence to treat breast cancer
Dr Barzilay is a holder of a doctorate in computer science. She went on to create a database from the pathological reports stretching back three decades at the Mass General Hospital. She developed an algorithm to parse this data, which covered more than 100,000 breast cancer patients.
Broker Charles Schwab to Launch “Fractional Stock” Ownership
Everyday investors are often handicapped by the minimum tradable value of a single unit of an ETF or a stock. Consider this scenario: an investor is looking to invest $100 in the market. But he’s out of luck if any of these are on the shopping list: SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) (now trading at $300 per share), Tesla (TSLA) ($294), Apple ($243), and Amazon (AMZN) (S1,779). However, Schwab’s fractional shares offer can do the trick. The investor can now buy a fraction of any of these stocks/ETF for $100.
Price Cuts the Flavour of the Season: Vanguard Europe Slashes Fees on ETFs and Index Funds
Vanguard adds fuel to the fee cut fire in financial services by slashing fees across its ETFs and index-tracking funds. The passive investing giant cut its fees down to an average of 0.2% across its index and ETFs product offerings.
Private Equity Giant Blackstone Reports Third Quarter Earnings
Private Equity Giant Sees Big Jump in Fee-Related Earnings Private equity company Blackstone Group reported earnings for the third quarter of 2019. GAAP net income was $1.2 billion for the quarter and $2.9 billion year-to-date. Revenues were down with $1,735,113 versus $1,926,580 in the comparable quarter last year. Distributable earnings per share came in at…
Liquid Alternatives: Picton Mahoney Acquires Five Funds from Vertex One
Picton Mahoney Asset Management will acquire a clutch of alternative investment funds from Vancouver-based Vertex One Asset Management Inc.
Picton Mahoney will henceforth function as the investment and portfolio manager of the following funds, with strategies given alongside.
Revolut and Mastercard To Partner On US Debit Cards
Revolut, the digital challenger bank, and fintech unicorn have tied up with Mastercard for US debit cards.
Mastercard will handle Revolut’s debit cards when they launch in the US sometime within this year. Also included in today’s deal is Europe – the two businesses will partner on a minimum of 50 percent of all of Revolut’s existing and future cards in Europe.
Credit Suisse Will Charge Large Depositors for Cash Deposits
Negative interest rates have forced Credit Suisse to charge interest on Swiss Franc balances in customers’ accounts above a certain level.
Effective November 15 (for business clients) and January 1, 2020 (for individuals), credit Suisse will charge clients at a rate of -0.75% for a balance more than CHF 2 million and -0.85% for that above CHF 10 million.
Globally, ESG Derivatives Are Taking Off
ESG (environmental, social, and governance) based derivatives are ramping up volumes globally, raising expectations for innovative new products.
Thailand’s Biggest Mutual Fund Embraces Artificial Intelligence to Avoid Being Disrupted
SCB Asset Management Company, the largest mutual fund company in Thailand, wants to offer new funds using AI technology.
SCB Asset will utilize cutting-edge tools such as artificial intelligence, data analytics and programmed trading to identify and offer new equity funds. These funds will invest in overseas equities and generate higher fees.
Liquefy to Digitize the Landmark Mayfair Luxury Hotel
Hong Kong-based Liquefy will be the provider for a consortium of Gulf families on a real estate digital securities project. The program has $1 billion worth of real estate assets in the pipeline. The first “digitalized” asset will be a luxury hotel in the Mayfair district of London worth $600 million.
Dominion Energy Transfers Stake in Cove Point to Brookfield Asset Management
Dominion Energy has entered an agreement with Brookfield Super-Core Infrastructure Partners. The latter is an infrastructure fund managed by Brookfield Asset Management (BAM).
Fidelity Ramps Up Crypto Trading and Custody Business
Boston-based financial group Fidelity thinks there is a profitable business to be made out crypto custody services and trading. It may be a smart move because there is a crying shortage of large, reputed players in the ‘Wild West’ world of crypto assets.
Fidelity is building upon its initial launch last autumn of “enterprise-quality” custodianship and trade execution services.