After five years of failure, hedge funds are beating the stock market again

collected by :Molly Tony

Over the past one, three, and five years, hedge funds have underperformed the overall stock market, providing 53-73% of the returns over those periods. Despite the prevailing wisdom that it isn't possible to beat the market, hedge funds are outperforming at the moment. The US stock market has had a rough start to the year, with the benchmark S&P 500 down 0.39%, but hedge funds have provided investors with 0.82% gains this year, according to the HFRI Equity Hedge Index. Those hedges mean that they should, on average, underperform when the stock market is going up (since they have bets against the market) and outperform when the market is going down (since, again, they have bets against the market). If 2018 continues to be a rocky year in the stock market, it may be that active stock pickers at hedge funds finally get their day in the sun, providing their investors with some downside protection once the nearly decade-long stock market party winds down.

Modest inflation report helps drive stock market to second day of gains

Slower growth in core prices may mean that the Federal Reserve will be less inclined to accelerate interest rate hikes. The Fed has signaled that it lift rates twice more this year, following an increase in March. Some expect that an uptick in inflation or economic growth might spur the Fed to add a third additional hike, for a total of four this year.

Mahathir reassures business, aims to boost stock market

as declared in KUALA LUMPUR: Dr Mahathir Mohamad assured he would lead a business-friendly administration and seek ways to boost Malaysia's stock market in his first remarks after being sworn in as prime minister. "We would like to tell the business people to push up the value of the stock market. Najib congratulated Mahathir late yesterday and said he's willing to help with a smooth transition of power. Yesterday, Mahathir said he thought he could recover most funds from 1MDB, and if Najib did anything wrong "he will have to face the consequences". Mahathir helms an unwieldy four-party coalition that includes Malaysia's largest ethnic Chinese party.

Here's why the stock market has its swagger back—for now

Don't look now, but U.S. stocks are in a decided uptrend as a period of market anxieties appear to have faded—at least for the moment. Meanwhile, there are a number of factors that investors say are underpinning the recent resurgence in risk-taking that's lifted the market. However, Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist at Voya Financial, said some of those worries have dissipated. Solid first quarter earningsEarnings have widely been considered among the best in recent memory but had been mostly ignored by market participants, until now. The combination of those events may have a lasting effect on oil prices and values for some of the biggest energy companies.

An indicator that's '90% accurate' suggests hidden strength in the stock market

One positive signal looks at the ratio of rising stocks on the New York Stock Exchange to the number of falling ones over time. Paul Schatz, the president of Heritage Capital, referred to this as "the one indicator that's 90% accurate" for forecasting moves. Both broke below their 200-day moving averages on an intraday basis twice last week, but they subsequently rebounded to close above it each time. For the 50-day moving average, 61% of the S&P's components are above this level. That's above this ratio's 50-day and 200-day averages, as well as up from 47% last week.