The Morning Brief: Micron Staggered After Downgrade

Shares of hedge fund favorite Micron Technology took a big hit, tumbling 3.5 percent after falling more than 4 percent during the Monday trading session after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Underweight and cut its price target from $30 to $21. In a report to clients, the investment bank cited slower growth than expected for the chipmaker. “Seasonal strength is coming later than expectations, creating some risks to 2016,” the report states. The bank also warns of excess supply in 2016. At the end of the first quarter, three of the top nine shareholders were New York-based Greenlight Capital, a long-time major shareholder, Greenwich, Connecticut-based Viking Global Investors, and Boston-based Baupost Group.

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Another hedge fund scorekeeper has been heard from. The Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index rose 0.83 percent in May, boosting its gain for the year to 3.35 percent. This is in line with other major databases, which have mostly figured the average fund rose less than 4 percent in the first five months of the year. Long/short equity funds fared best in May, gaining 2.15 percent while emerging markets funds performed best for the year-to-date, up 5.16 percent.

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Another former Deutsche Bank employee has joined Andrew Law’s Caxton Associates. James Malcolm, a foreign-exchange strategist, will be working out of the London office, according to Bloomberg. He joins Junaid Mohammad, a quantitative trader, and Trevor Dinmore, a former senior foreign-exchange trader, according to the report.

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Zachary J. Schreiber’s New York-based PointState Capital disclosed that it established a new stake of nearly 11.7 million shares of Amaya. This works out to 8.76 percent of the Montreal-based online gaming company.

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