Pension Pulse

Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Sam Forgione of Reuters report, Top U.S. hedge funds cut Apple stakes ahead of all-time high : Top U.S. hedge fund management firms, including David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital and Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management, reduced their stakes in Apple Inc during the fourth quarter, ahead of the iPhone maker's strong rally in 2015, according to regulatory filings. Apple was a big winner in 2014, with its shares rising nearly 38 percent. The company's stock is up more than 16 percent year to date and reached an intraday record high of $128.88 per share. Last week, its stock market value rose above $700 billion, bigger than Switzerland's gross domestic product. Although Apple is the biggest position in Coatue Management's portfolio, the firm sold 1.7 million shares at the end of the quarter, or more than 15 percent of its stake, leaving it with 8.9 million shares, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. In a filing on Friday, G...

Mike Corones of Reuters reports, Chicago’s untenable pension situation (h/t, Suzanne Bishopric): The headline certainly sounds dire: Chicago sees fiscal doomsday if court suspends pension changes . The reality might live up to the rhetoric. The state of Illinois is in nearly untenable financial straits, with an unfunded estimated pension liability of a dizzying $111 billion owing to a long history of failing to fully pay into the pension fund . It sought relief in the form of the state’s Pension Reform Act, which brings cost-of-living payouts into line with inflation rather than a straight 3 percent annual increase. But the bill, which went into effect Jan. 1, was quickly struck down by a Springfield court, and now sits before the Illinois Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on it soon. Chicago, meanwhile, has a crisis of its own, also due to a historical failure to sufficiently pay into its pension system. As this Reuters graphic shows (click on image above), Chicago’...