Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Shorts on the attack

US short seller Hindenburg Research is targeting Asia’s richest man with accusations of market manipulation and fraud. The bold move comes after a run of often-successful bets against companies ranging from electric-vehicle maker Nikola to Twitter. The firm published an almost 100-page report on Gautam Adani’s Adani Group, sending shares of the Indian group’s companies tumbling Wednesday. And the pain may not be over. Hindenburg has targeted about 30 companies since 2020. On average, their stocks lost about 15% the next day, and were down 26% six months later. —David E. Rovella

The private equity industry is waking up to a reckoning after more than a decade of stratospheric growth fueled by cheap debt and a relentless flow of investor capital. Firms have so far been reluctant to reflect the impact of economic headwinds when valuing assets held in their funds, according to Imogen Richards of Pantheon Ventures. “They love their assets like their children,” she said. “They really don’t want to write [them] down.”

Checking your 401(k) balance is a little less painful these days. Popular active equity funds in 401(k)s tanked last year because of their heavy focus on big technology companies. Those same stocks have given them a boost so far in 2023.

US housing demand is starting to show signs of recovery, with pending sales rising for the first time in more than a year. They climbed 2.9% in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, the first month-over-month increase since October 2021. Other data is looking up, too. 

Chicago is hiring. The Windy City is looking to attract foreign workers recently terminated by tech giants as companies there and in its suburbs try to fill thousands of open positions. More than 35 firms in the Chicago region are willing to hire workers on H-1B visas, given to foreign employees in specialty occupations such as software engineering.

For three years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has showered blessings upon the US as his self-isolated, belligerent and increasingly repressive China became its own worst enemy, Hal Brands writes in Bloomberg Opinion. Now, Beijing seems to be attempting a correction, and Xi’s new, nicer approach could expose America’s diplomatic weaknesses.

Xi Jinping  Source: Bloomberg

As Ukraine’s allies wrangle over what comes next to help the country fight Vladimir Putin’s forces, unfinished business elsewhere on NATO’s doorstep is in need of some attention. It seems Europe may be sleepwalking into yet another war.

Updated Covid-19 boosters originally designed to protect against early omicron strains continued to reduce rates of illness from new mutants that have since spread rapidly throughout the US. 

Bloomberg continues to track the global coronavirus pandemic. Click here for daily updates.

• How cash-needy startups are avoiding the dreaded “down round.”
• Markets are worried about the debt ceiling. These charts show the fear.
• Beware greenwashers: a class action wave is coming for your ESG claims.
• Boeing hints a new jet it’s testing with NASA could replace the 737 Max.
• DirectTV boots far-right channel Newsmax over fees.
• How to be 18 years-old again for only $2 million a year.
• Quick Take: These are all the tanks going to Ukraine.

Fake meat was supposed to save the world, but it has some real problems: skeptical consumers walking away from companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, not to mention sales sinking like a concrete block. Suspicion is growing that something which once seemed all the rage was actually a fad. Could this mean a new day for traditional veggie patties, a renaissance for what in earlier times was a box of frozen hockey pucks at the back of the freezer?

Photographer: The Washington Post 

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