Business

Back in January, Harvard's Endowment stunned the investing world when it announced that the investing vehicle which manages $36 billion in assets, would undergo a "radical overhaul" in the way the world’s wealthiest school invests its money by outsourcing management of most of its assets and lay off roughly half the staff in the process. As the WSJ reported at the time, about half of the 230 employees at Harvard Management Company would depart as part of a sweeping change by the university’s new endowment chief, N.P. “Narv” Narvekar.

Speaking at today's Ira Sohn conference, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman reiterated his Howard Hughes long recommendation - a name he has been involved with for years - citing its strong management and desirable locations as reasons why it should become more valuable over time. According to Reuters data, Ackman's $11 billion Pershing Square Capital Management owns 8.85% of Howard Hughes and ranks as its biggest shareholder. Oh, and Ackman serves on the company's board so no conflict there.

Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh last week slammed the Fed, during a speech delivered at the Hoover Fed Conference, admitting the central bank had no real "normalization" strategy aside from jawboning, and accused his former co-workers of potentially terminal groupthink.

Since the blackout period for buybacks ended after earnings last week, Apple shares have found a dip-buyer every day willing to lift the stock off its lows and close it at its highs... after a disappointing earnings call and outlook, the stock is up almost 7%, breaking above $150 and topping $800 Billion market cap for the first time ever...

In a note from Goldman's cross-asset strategist Ian Wright, the bank points out something troubling: on one hand, over the past six months, or rather since the US elections, equity markets around the globe have soared, and returns across regions have been "strong" - S&P 500, Stoxx 600, Nikkei 225 and MSCI EM ($) have returned roughly 11%, 16%, 20% and 11% in local currency price terms, respectively, with MSCI World ($) up 12% over the same period.  In other words, everything is up.