"The Saudis are preparing for Iran’s return," said Mohamed Sadegh Memarian, who recently retired as the head of petroleum market analysis at Iran’s oil ministry, as they sharply cut the prices they charge for crude oil in Europe (to the biggest discount since Feb 2009). The move that will likely undercut Iran happens as sectarian tensions escalate between the rival Middle Eastern nations.
As noted moments ago, the iconic $1.5 billion Nevsky Capital is calling it quits. What is surprising, is that unlike some "one hit wonder" hedge fund wannabe, Nevsky is actually a brand name in the hedge fund community, as demonstrated by the following performance charts.
And yet, despite its sterling performance, the fund is liquidating for all intents and purposes and returning outside money. Here is the full reason why, from the December letter to clients:
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Why have Nevsky Capital decided to cease managing the Nevsky Fund?
Following a year of historic routs in the hedge fund space, yesterday we pointed out that after the new year's break, it was time for the pain among the active investors to return:
Time for the first hedge fund liquidation of 2016
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 4, 2016
After yesterday's historic -6.9% rout in the Shanghai Composite, which saw the first new marketwide circuit breaker trading halt applied to Chinese stocks (on its first day of operation), many were wondering if the Chinese government would intervene in both the once again imploding stock market, as well as China's plunging and rapidly devaluing currency.