Original post:
A bit of insight on the jump in the govvy stocks from MarketBeat:
It’s been a good week on the Web for the folks over at Fortune. First there was their profile of reclusive former Lehman Brothers CFO Erin Callan which ping-ponged around the Web. Now, a rosy read on Citigroup is being pointed to by some looking to explain the stock’s 6% surge.The story points towards hedgies that have been buying up Citigroup shares, pointing out that
Bruce Berkowitz, “who manages the $11 billion Fairholme fund and was recently named Morningstar’s U.S. stock manager of the past decade, recently bought more than $700 million worth of Citi shares.” Fortune’s Scott Cendrowski writes:Other smart money has recently been speculating on the stock. Hedge fund legend George Soros bought nearly 100 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2009; John Paulson of Paulson & Co. added more than 200 million shares; and Daniel Loeb’s Third Point bought shares worth $83 million.
Of course, the Fortune piece is just a one of the plethora of ideas some have mentioned about why Citi shares have perked up today. (Peter Boockvar of Miller Tabak notes that Citi volume is running about 500 million shares higher than Monday.) For more ideas on what might be giving Citi a jolt check out this Journal story as well as this post by the great Tiernan Ray over at Barron’s.
Oh, and one other element of activity that seems to have gotten the market’s attention seems to be chatter about government plans to sell off its stake in Citi. DJ Reports....MORE
