04/08/09 - The Raw Greenwich Business News Wire

Home Prices Fall in 21 U.S. Cities, Led by Drops in Sacramento, Las Vegas

Bloomberg

Home prices declined in 21 U.S. cities in January, led by Sacramento and Las Vegas, as banks sold foreclosed homes at bargain prices.

The price per square foot in Sacramento, the capital of California, dropped 28 percent to $166 from a year earlier, according to a report released today by New York-based Radar Logic Inc., a real estate data company. Las Vegas fell 25 percent to $137 a square foot...

...``Foreclosures are throwing more supply on the market,'' said Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners LP, an equity trading and research firm in Greenwich, Connecticut. ``That's certainly a downward force on prices.''...

...new homes in the U.S. fell in February to an annual pace of 590,000, the lowest level in 13 years, the Commerce Department said in a March 26 report.

Radar Logic's monthly housing report tracks the 28-day aggregated value of a daily index the company compiles based on home sales that is used to trade property derivatives. Using a price-per-square-foot number reduces the influence of property size when calculating price changes, the company said. The data is not seasonally adjusted.

Closely held Radar Logic changed its name from Global Skyline Inc. in 2006.

Peru's Sol Rises to Decade High on Fitch's Investment-Grade Debt Rating

Bloomberg

Peru's sol reached a decade high against the dollar after its foreign-currency debt rating was raised to investment grade by Fitch Ratings yesterday, increasing the allure of the nation's securities....

...Mexican Peso Rises

The upgrade will increase pressure on the sol to appreciate ``on the back of a broadening of the investor base in soles and demand for local assets,'' Flavia Cattan-Naslausky, an interest- rate and currency strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland in Greenwich, Connecticut, wrote in a report today.

Mexico's peso rose 0.16 percent to 10.5595 per dollar, from 10.576 yesterday. The yield on Mexico's benchmark bond maturing in December 2024 fell 4 basis points to 7.56 percent, according to Banco Santander...

Another hedge fund bites the dust

CNN Money

After months of poor performance, Goldman Sachs has stopped offering an investment account that AQR Capital Management created for the bank's 401(k) lineup.

According to a letter written by Goldman Sachs, that fund "has already begun unwinding positions in order to ensure an orderly liquidation and close of the fund on April 30." People close to the matter say that the process has been completed...

... under management have shrunk from about $11 billion at the beginning of 2007. According to a Bloomberg report, the Greenwich, Connecticut firm's flagship $2.9 billion Absolute Return Fund was down almost 15% through Feb. 15. AQR's Asset Allocation ...

Don Herrema Becomes a Senior Advisor to Stone Point Capital

Market Wire

Stone Point Capital, the manager of the Trident Funds, announced that Donald J. Herrema has become a Senior Advisor to Stone Point Capital. He will work closely with the investment team at Stone Point Capital on identifying and pursuing investment opportunities primarily in the asset management and private client services sectors...

... with them on future investment opportunities." Stone Point Capital LLC is a global private equity firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Stone Point Capital, the manager of the Trident Funds, has raised more than $10 billion in committed capital to make investments in the global insurance, employee benefits and financial services industries. Stone Point Capital has a 20 year track record of successful investments in its targeted sectors.

W.R. Berkley to Change Stock Ticker Symbol...

Insurance News Net

Chad Hemenway

GREENWICH, Conn. W.R. Berkley Corp. is changing its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol to WRB from BER, the insurance holding company said in a statement.

The change.....

Stocks Drop After Rise in Jobless Claims

Black Enterprise

Wall Street slipped Thursday after the Labor Department reported a spike in jobless claims, sapping some of the market's confidence ahead of Friday's anxiously anticipated March employment report....

... economists predicted. "We're still holding up," said Steven Goldman, chief market strategist at Weeden & Co. in Greenwich, Conn. "We've had a big rally." Meanwhile, Wall Street was cautiously listening for new information about the economy and ...

...With a broad swath of corporate earnings reports set to arrive in the coming weeks, the market is eager for signs that the economy, while undeniably weak, is not crumbling, and that the credit markets are improving.

In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 35.82, or 0.28 percent, to 12,570.01

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