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A choppy Wall Street session ends on a slight rise. Hedge funds are drawing investors, monetary meetings looming around the world, Chevron offering minority stakes in three oilfields in Alaska, and more financial news
Wall Street’s main indexes ended slightly higher after a choppy and seesaw session on Monday, with the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ rebounding from their worst percentage drop since June on Friday, US News reported.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, the NASDAQ composite rose 0.8%, and the Dow Jones closed up 197 points, CNN reported.
Anxious investors are moving toward hedge funds as they look for alternative investments amid interest rate hikes and roller coaster markets.
“Certain hedge fund strategies can perform well in volatile and sideways-moving markets,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, “an environment we expect to last into next year.”
Even as stocks fell, hedge fund performance improved in August, CNN Business reported, based on the latest reading of the HFRI 500 Fund Weighted Composite Index, which tracks the top funds in the industry. Macro funds are up 14.8% year to date, while the S&P 500 fell 17% through August.
Investors are anxiously awaiting the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting later this week as well as meetings of 16 other global central banks, all of which are expected to further tighten monetary policies this week. Scheduled to meet are the Bank of England and banks in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, Taiwan, Guatemala, Egypt, the Philippines, and other countries, CNN Business reported.
Chevron Corp is offering minority shares in three Alaskan oil fields comprising over 2,000 oil and gas wells, a move that seems to signal the company’s second exit from oil production in the state in three decades, US News reported.
Chevron currently holds roughly 10% in Alaska’s Endicott field, 5% in Kuparuk field, and 1.2% in Prudhoe Bay. The company is offering stakes in all three fields. The stakes are non-operating interests that provide a share of profits, and bids are due this month.
Chevron estimates the proved and developed portions of these assets are worth $665 million. When assessed for future development, a marketing document distributed by the company estimates it could be worth $926 million. However, an estimate by a Rystad Energy analyst using comparables said a sale at current oil prices would likely fetch between $450 million and $550 million.
