BOSTON/LONDON: Wall Street is gearing up for another week of market mayhem, with signs that the retail frenzy that pumped up the stock prices of the likes of GameStop Corp and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc is spreading to other assets.
Some of Wall Street’s largest hedge funds are still licking their wounds after retail traders sought to drive up the prices of stocks that were heavily bet against, resulting in large losses for major investors. Melvin Capital, a hedge fund at the center of the GameStop drama, lost 53% in January but received commitments for fresh cash from investors in the last days of the month, Reuters reported on Sunday.
Melvin ended January with more than $8 billion in assets after having started the year with roughly $12.5 billion in assets, according to a person familiar with the matter.
On Friday, Citron Research’s Andrew Left, who spent two decades building his brand as one of the world’s best-known short-sellers, turned his back on publicly detailing companies’ shortcomings, following an intense backlash against him and others who said video retailer GameStop’s stock was not worth its price. “We saw the might of a new investor base, in terms of their ability to shape not just the fortunes of an individual stock but the fortunes of a large market segment like the Russell 2000,” said Sunil Krishnan, head of multi-asset funds at Aviva Investors.
Amid the wild price fluctuations, the amount of position covering last week by U.S. hedge funds, buying and selling, was the highest since the financial crisis more than a decade ago, according to an analysis by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Nevertheless, their market exposure to stocks is still near record levels, the investment bank warned. – Agencies
