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The Pimco Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund run by Bill Gross, is ending the month on a rough note, lagging 93 percent of its peers so far in July. According to preliminary Morningstar data on Thursday, the Pimco Total Return is posting returns of negative 0.49 percent, while its peer-fund category is putting up returns of 0.26 percent on the month as of July 30. Gross's fund performance is widely followed as it serves as an industry benchmark, though this year has been one of Gross's roughest patches. Gross saw his successor, Mohamed El-Erian, resign earlier this year while his Pimco Total Return has seen over $64 billion of net outflows since May 2013. "The Pimco Total Return Fund (PTTRX) has a lot of duration exposure to the 1-5 year point of the yield curve, the exact spot where yields rose during July," said David Schawel, vice president and portfolio manager of Square 1 Financial. "Meanwhile, they show to have just 11 percent of mat

Billionaire investor William Ackman called himself his "own worst enemy" in reviewing why last week's much hyped presentation on Herbalife Ltd.'s nutrition clubs failed to deliver the "death blow" he had originally promised. _0"> "It was a PR failure," Ackman told Bloomberg News on Thursday, explaining that he had raised expectations about the presentation. "People were looking for the dead body and the smoking gun and instead what they got was a three-hour detailed regulatory presentation," he said in the interview. "I'm my own worst enemy," Ackman said when asked whether he had been advised on how to present the data. Ackman was not available for comment but a spokesman confirmed his comments. Herbalife's stock price climbed higher during the July 22 presentation, extending the fund manager's losses on his $1 billion short bet against the company that he unveiled 19 months ago when he first accused the

Famed oil trader Andy Hall's more than $3 billion hedge fund was up nearly 20 percent at the half-year mark, sharply outpacing its rivals in one of the best performances of its seven-year history, data obtained by Reuters showed on Thursday. The feat came as Occidental Petroleum Corp, which owns 20 percent of Hall's Westport, Connecticut-based hedge fund Astenbeck Capital Management and trading firm Phibro, reported a strong second quarter on Thursday, citing "improved marketing and trading" activity. Occidental did not say if it was still open to selling its stakes in Astenbeck and Phibro, which it was considering early this year to reduce proprietary trading after a patch of weak returns at Hall's fund. Hall's Astenbeck returned the most this year from among nine commodity funds that Maryland's $44 billion state pension system was invested in, data obtained by Reuters showed. The Astenbeck Commodities Fund III, which Maryland had about $137 million

A former broker who masterminded an annuity scheme to profit from the deaths of terminally ill patients has agreed to an $850,000 fine and to be banned from the securities industry, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday. The broker, Michael Horowitz of Los Angeles, also admitted to wrongdoing as part of the settlement, the SEC said. The agency filed a civil action against Horowitz in March. Variable annuities are investment vehicles designed to help retirees maintain a source of income. Typically, insurance companies who sell the annuities will agree to make periodic payments to people who purchase the product. But another common feature offered is a death benefit, in which the insurer pays the policyholder's beneficiary under certain conditions. Horowitz, the SEC said, recruited people to help him steal personal health information from hospice and nursing home patients so he could designate them as annuitants and sell the products to wealthy investors

(James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own) The taper tantrum was brutal, but rising rates do not have to mean lousy performance for emerging markets. As investors look to the possibility of rising official interest rates in the U.S. and Britain in the coming year their expectations are colored by nasty memories of 2013’s taper tantrum, when bumbled communications by the Federal Reserve caused Treasury yields to spike and emerging markets to suffer. Asset performance was both volatile and very poor, particularly among emerging market countries like India and South Africa which need to attract capital flows from abroad. But much depends on why rates are rising, rather than just the direction. “Higher interest rates and exit from monetary stimulus in major advanced economies when led by stronger growth prospects produce good spillovers,” according to International Monetary Fund economist Hamid Faruqee, one of the authors of a report this week on the po

Consumers who opt in for bank overdraft protection end up paying more than double for small purchases, a U.S. consumer watchdog warned on Thursday, giving banks a fee bonanza when checking accounts are short of funds. A study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau showed that debit card overdraft fees average about $34, and are mostly incurred on transactions of $24 or less. Consumers therefore end up paying the equivalent of more than 17,000 percent in annual interest rate for a loan, the CFPB said. Overdraft fees, which are usually paid within three days, are giving U.S. banks and credit unions more than half of their consumer checking income, the agency said. About one in five consumers who opt in will likely overdraw an account more than 10 times a year, and pay about $260 per year in overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees, CFPB Director Richard Cordray told reporters on a conference call. "Despite recent regulatory and industry changes, overdrafts continue to impo

Hedge fund managers Barry Rosenstein and David Einhorn, like many other investors, were hurt by last month's late but sharp stock market selloff and are reporting losses for July, investors who saw their performance numbers said. _0"> Rosenstein's Jana Partners funds lost 1.3 percent in July while his Jana Nirvana fund lost 1.7 percent. Meanwhile, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital fell 2.9 percent last month. For the year, however, all those funds are still in the black. Rosenstein's Nirvana fund is up 6.2 percent, beating the S&P 500's 5.7 percent rise while his Partners fund is up 4.0 percent. Einhorn's Greenlight Capital is up 3.6 percent. Rosenstein and Einhorn rank among the world's biggest and most successful hedge fund managers, so their monthly numbers are closely followed by investors, keen to gauge the health of the broader hedge fund industry. On the last day of July, the U.S. Dow Jones industrial average lost 317 points to regi