Bridgewater Bets Big against Largest Banks in Spain & Italy

Bridgewater Bets Big against Largest Banks in Spain & Italy by Don Quijones • Feb 10, 2018 • 21 Comments World’s largest hedge fund puts down $13 billion to profit from trouble in Europe. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bridgewater Bets Big against Largest Banks in Spain & Italy by Don Quijones • Feb 10, 2018 • 21 Comments World’s largest hedge fund puts down $13 billion to profit from trouble in Europe. By Don Quijones, Spain, UK, & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET. A lot of people have lost a lot of money in the recent financial market convulsions, but there’s still plenty of money to be made by betting against the companies, as the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, showed this week. It bet heavily against four of Spain’s biggest corporate hitters. The fund took up short positions worth €1.2 billion, or 0.5% of total shares at Banco Santander, BBVA, Telefónica and Iberdrola. The gamble has already reaped dividends. Shares of Iberdrola, Spain’s biggest utilities company, Telefonica, Spain’s struggling telecoms giant, and Santander, Spain’s biggest bank ended the week around 5% lower, while BBVA tumbled 4%. Bridgewater placed its best against the two large Spanish banks last week, just as they presented annual results that largely disappointed the market. Since then, both banks have lost close to 10% of their market cap.---READ more:https://wolfstreet.com/2018/02/10/bridgewater-bets-big-against-largest-banks-in-spain-italy/