The Morning Brief: SEC to Take a Harder Look at Hedge Funds

The Securities and Exchange Commission has heightened its scrutiny of alternative investment firms. The agency has created a group that will specifically examine hedge funds and private equity firms, according to a Reuters report. These examiners will look at how these firms value their assets, disclose their fees, and communicate with investors, according to the report. Keep in mind that the SEC is already required to regularly examine financial institutions to make sure they are in compliance with federal securities laws.

The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index fell 0.3 percent in March, trimming its gain for the first quarter to 1.1 percent, according to Chicago-based industry tracker Hedge Fund Research. The index was up in February but down in January and March. Last month the HFRI Relative Value Index gained 0.6 percent, boosting its return for the quarter to 2.4 percent. The only area that posted a loss for the quarter was macro strategies, dropping 0.5 percent, including 1.1 percent in March.

Steven Cohen’s Stamford, Connecticut-based family office, Point72 Asset Management, was up 10 percent in the first quarter, according to CNBC. “We have stayed together and kept our cool through some incredibly difficult years,” president Tom Conheeney reportedly wrote in a company e-mail. “We battled back from people expecting that we would close our doors and go out of business.

Ricky Sandler’s New York-based Eminence Capital disclosed it owns 5.6 percent of InterXion Holding N.V., a Netherlands-based provider of cloud data center services. The stake was disclosed in a 13G filing, which means it is passive.

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