According to a new Form 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,  Phil Frohlich and Prescott Group Capital Management raised its exposure in China Marine Food Group Ltd (NYSEMKT:CMFO), through buying 316,492 shares at a price around $0.2 apiece. Through the acquisition of additional shares, the fund now owns almost 5.8 million shares of the company.

A couple of days ago, Frohlich and Prescott reportedanother bullish move on China Marine Food Group, raising their position to around 5.5 million shares.

Disclosure: none.

Recommended Reading:

Becker Drapkin Management Increases Stake in Emcore to 8.6%

Silver Point Capital Reiterates Stake in Standard Register Co

Valinor Management Joins Prentice Capital and Bets On dELiA*s

In a newly amended 13D, Matthew Drapkin and Steven R. Becker‘s Becker Drapkin Management reported raising its exposure in EMCORE Corporation (NASDAQ:EMKR) to 8.6%, from 7.1% held earlier. According to the filing, Becker Drapkin upped its stake in Emcore to some 2.3 million shares, from 1.9 million owned previously.

Disclosure: none

Edward A. Mule‘s Silver Point Capital disclosed a 28.4% stake in Standard Register Co (NYSE:SR). The stake amasses 2,202,695 shares, and was obtained by Silver Point after it exercised the warrants to purchase a total of 2,202,699 it held earlier. “The Funds paid the exercise price on a cashless basis in accordance with the terms of the Warrants, resulting in the Issuer withholding 4 shares of Common Stock to pay the exercise price and issuing to the Funds the remaining 2,202,695 shares of Common Stock,” the filing with the SEC stated.

Earlier in August, Silver Point reported holding the warrants issued by Standard Register in terms of company’s acquisition of all outstanding membership interests of  WorkflowOne LLC.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Valinor Management Joins Prentice Capital and Bets On dELiA*s

Former Icahn MD's Sarissa Capital Discloses 6.2% of Ariad Pharmaceuticals

Dan Gold's QVT Ups Stake in Oncothyreon to 5.8%

David Gallo‘s Valinor Management recently added retailer dELiA*s, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLIA) to its equity portfolio. A new filing with the SEC revealead a passive stake that amasses almost 6.6 million shares of dELiA*s, which represent 9.56% of the company. Yesterday, Prentice Capital Management reported increasing its exposure in dELiA*s to 8.78% of the company’s common stock.

Disclosure: none

According to a new filing with the SEC, Sarissa Capital Management now holds around 11.5 million shares of Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA), with an aggregate value of some $43.6 million, at the current stock price of the company. The position held by Sarissa  amasses about 6.2% of Ariad’s common stock.

Alex Denner used to work for Carl Icahn between 2006 and 2011. Sarissa Capital is an activist healthcare focused hedge fund with a long bias. The fund was launched earlier in 2013.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Dan Gold's QVT Ups Stake in Oncothyreon to 5.8%

David Blood and Al Gore Decrease Position in Kingspan Group to 8.7%

The 10 Main Hedge Fund Moves of the Past Seven Days

QVT Financial, a fund managed by Daniel Gold, in a newly amended filing, reported increasing its position in Oncothyreon Inc (USA) (NASDAQ:ONTY) to almost 6.6%, from 5.8% disclosed when QVT initiated its exposure in Oncothyreon, earlier in September. QVT raised its holding in the company to 4.2 million shares, from 3.7 million owned previously.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

David Blood and Al Gore Decrease Position in Kingspan Group to 8.7%

Safra Asset Management Ups Stake in Fibria Celulose to 6%

Baker Bros. Buy Some Shares of Mirati Therapeutics

David Blood and Al Gore‘s Generation Investment Management decreased its position in London-listed Kingspan Group PLC (LON:KGP), according to a filing from a couple of minutes ago. Generation now owns around 14.7 million shares of the company, which represent about 8.7% of its voting rights. Before the transaction, Generation held slightly below 17.3 million shares of Kingspan.

Disclosure: none

MTR Gaming Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNTG) today got an updated proposal from Jeffrey P. Jacobs, Chairman and CEO of Jacobs Investments, in which the latter urges the Board of MTR to accept his proposal of merger, a filing with the SEC stated. Public shareholders of MTR Gaming would get $30 million which is higher than $24.6 million that they will receive if the company accepts the proposal to merge Eldorado Resorts.

Jacobs said the following in his letter: “Obviously my proposal to merge at an implied value of $5.69 per share represents significantly more value to shareholders than the $5.15 value per share in the existing Eldorado merger agreement. When the Board meets, it should also keep in mind the following additional aspects in which my proposal is clearly and obviously superior to the existing Eldorado merger agreement:” (download the letter below)

Jacobs proposal for MTR

Jeffrey Jacobs holds a significant position in MTR Gaming, his stake comprising 5.1 million shares of the company, which represents 18.14% of the company. He first offered to sell Jacobs Entertainment to MTR at the beginning of October, issuing a slideshow that supports his case. MTR Gaming entered into a merger agreement with Eldorado Resorts.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Safra Asset Management Ups Stake in Fibria Celulose to 6%

Baker Bros. Buy Some Shares of Mirati Therapeutics

The 10 Main Hedge Fund Moves of the Past Seven Days

In a newly amended filing, Safra Asset Management reported increasing its exposure in Fibria Celulose SA (ADR) (NYSE:FBR). According to the filing by Jupiter Global Strategy Fund, for which Safra is an investment manager, Safra now owns over 33.2 million shares of Fibria, versus some 31.6 million disclosed earlier. The new stake amasses 6% of the Fibria’s common stock.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Baker Bros. Buy Some Shares of Mirati Therapeutics

Weiss Asset Management Lowers Its Position in LSE-listed Tamar

Outerwall Listens to Jana — Should You?

Baker Bros., Mirati Therapeutics: In a new form 4 from today, Julian and Felix Baker‘s Baker Bros. Advisors reported buying 400,000 shares of Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRTX). Following the transaction, Baker Bros own an aggregate amount of some 2.4 million shares. The shares have been purchased in terms of an underwritten public offering of Mirati Therapeutics, the per-share price amounting to $17.5 apiece.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

The 10 Main Hedge Fund Moves of the Past Seven Days

Weiss Asset Management Lowers Its Position in LSE-listed Tamar

Outerwall Listens to Jana — Should You?

Which stocks are hedge funds betting on right now? During the past week, we tracked and recorded basically all hedge fund moves. However, several “hedgies” have been particularly active. With this in mind, we would like to present you 10 moves to keep track of.

Carl Icahn boosted its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to around $2.5 billion. Icahn also sent a letter to Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook. Yesterday, Carl Icahn also reported picking up its activist position in Talisman Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:TLM) to 6.96%, from 5.9%.

Coliseum Capital, managed by Christopher Shackelton and Adam Gray, initiated a passive stake in Jamba, Inc.(NASDAQ:JMBA), which amasses 6.1% of the company’s common stock.

Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management reported raising its majority position in Global Eagle Entertainment (NASDAQ:ENT) to 31.7 million shares, which represent 53% of the company.

Pine River Capital, managed by Brian Taylor disclosed dumping its entire stake in micro-cap Cullen Agricultural Holding (OTCBB:CAGZ).

Howard Marks‘s Oaktree Capital Management revealed its position in privately-held NewPage Holdings, which amounts to 15.8% of outstanding shares.

Bill Ackman‘s hedge fund, Pershing Square reduced its stake in Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (USA) (NYSE:CP) to some 17.2 million shares from around 24.2 million reported in Pershing Square’s latest 13F.

Lone Pine Capital, led by Stephen Mandel, boosted its exposure in The Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS), now holding 25.1 million shares, equivalent to 5.4% of Gap’s common stock.

Jeff Smith‘s Starboard Value increased its position in TriQuint Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TQNT) to some 12.5 million shares, which represent 8% of the company.

Solus Alternative Asset Management, run by Christopher Pucillo reported two bearish moves in YRC Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:YRCW), reducing its position in the company to 548,336 shares.

Weiss Asset Management, Tamar European Industrial Fund: Weiss Asset Management, led by Andrew Weiss, reported today that it is decreasing its exposure in Tamar European Industrial Fund Ltd (LON:TEIF) to some 19.3 million shares, from around 24.3 million owned earlier. Following the transaction, Weiss holds almost 13.8% of the company’s voting rights.

Disclosure: none

An activist investor presence in tech-kiosk company Outerwall (NASDAQ:OUTR) has yielded results. In the company’s recent earnings announcement, management made a motion toward returning capital to shareholders — an action championed by Jana Partners, an activist group with a 13.5% stake in the business. Outerwall’s challenges aren’t over yet, though, as the company still faces rental declines in its core Redbox business. Earnings met guidance that had previously been lowered, giving the market a satisfying, if uninteresting, picture of the company’s current state. For investors, the new plan to return 75% to 100% of free cash flow in the form of buybacks is indicative of a closely listening management team. Here’s what may come next.

Not growing, but printing cash
Despite concerns regarding future demand for its DVD rental kiosks, Outerwall actually beat analyst projections in its fiscal third-quarter report.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.97 per share — $0.09 better than analyst estimates, but well under the year-ago haul of $1.26 per share. Sales still rose nearly 10% from the same quarter of 2012, and the company was satisfied with Redbox, Coinstar, and its newly acquired ecoATM — a kiosk that buys personal electronics for cash.

The company announced its plans to return nearly all of its free cash to shareholders. That is a victory for Jana and perhaps a harbinger of more cooperation between the activist fund and Outerwall management.

So what else is Jana pushing for?

More levers to pull
Jana initiated its position because it believes the company is fundamentally undervalued. That value, it suggests, could be realized by better capital allocation, such as cash back to shareholders, shutting down Redbox Instant (a failed attempt at taking market share from Netflix, Amazon.com, and Hulu), and/or shuttering a coffee kiosk venture. Other options include the possible sale of the company.

Management has so far made no comment that it plans to pull the plug on Redbox Instant, but it makes sense. The deal with Verizon was never particularly advantageous to Outerwall, and the giants in the streaming business were bound to keep the companies’ venture grounded.

For investors, there is plenty of reason to feel good about the company. Redbox and Coinstar continue to generate loads of cash, and management seems now convinced that the destination for that money is back to shareholders. Over the long run, DVD demand will surely decrease, but there is no immediate end to this business. Outerwall and its investors will continue to see plenty of cash coming in the door. Furthermore, investors should be encouraged by management’s willingness to discuss the strategic alternatives to the business. Whether the company sells itself for a nice, quick premium or can boost its already strong cash flow by exiting the cash-burning segments, investors will see an improvement in coming periods. Overall, Outerwall is set to deliver value to shareholders.

The article Outerwall Listens to Jana — Should You? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Michael Lewis has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Amazon.com and Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com and Netflix.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

A lot has been said about the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. And much has been said particularly about the health insurance exchanges established by Obamacare. Here are five quotes that pretty much sum up what has happened with those exchanges this year — and why they matter for investors.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Flickr.

1. “No. We are determined and on track to meet the Oct. 1 deadline.” — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, April 12, 2013. 

Sebelius made this remark in response to a congressman’s question about whether a backup plan was needed in case the Obamacare exchanges couldn’t roll out on schedule. The projection of confidence in the ability for the exchanges to be fully operational on Oct. 1 continued in the subsequent months.

2.  ”… Factors such as the still-evolving scope of CMS’s required activities in each state and the many activities yet to be performed — some close to the start of enrollment — suggest a potential for challenges going forward.” – Government Accountability Office, June 19, 2013. 

The federal watchdog agency pointed out several significant issues found in its review published in June. What seemed like the most troubling issue then was that, as of May, 44% of key activities needing to be done by the end of March were behind schedule. Perhaps the more significant issue, though, really was the GAO’s comment about “still-evolving scope” just four months prior to the scheduled launch of the exchanges.

3. “To make further improvements to the system, we will be taking down the application part of the website for scheduled maintenance during off-peak hours over the weekend.” — HHS spokesperson Joanne Peters, Oct. 4, 2013. 

Fast-forward the clock to the first week of October. The Obamacare exchanges launched on time, but with major technical problems. Only four days after starting up, the federal government brought the exchanges down for weekend “improvements.” Unfortunately, problems persisted into the following week and beyond. President Obama subsequently promised a “tech surge” to work out “the kinks in the system.”

4. “The system didn’t receive adequate end-to-end testing.” — Optum VP Andrew Slavitt, Oct. 24, 2013. 

Andrew Slavitt from UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) business unit Optum, which owns Quality Software Services, testified before a congressional committee inquiring into Obamacare exchange problems. Quality Software Services was one of the key contractors helping to build the exchange websites. Slavitt’s view that a key issue related to insufficient end-to-end testing, which was the responsibility of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, received agreement from others involved in the development.

Cheryl Campbell, a senior vice president with CGI Group , the lead contractor on the exchanges, lamented that “no one ever gets enough time for testing.” Sebelius, who had earlier expressed confidence in the exchanges publicly, said after the deluge of problems that “we didn’t have enough testing” and that a year of testing was ideally needed.

5. “By the end of November, the vast majority of consumers will be able to successfully and smoothly enroll through Healthcare.gov.” — Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Jeffrey Zients, Oct. 25, 2013. 

Jeffrey Zients was brought in by the White House to oversee the effort to fix the exchange problems. Zients predicted that most problems would be resolved by the end of November and announced that UnitedHealth’s Quality Software Services would be the lead contractor. He stated that while a lot of problems existed, those problems would be fixable — within two months after the original launch date.

The most interesting quotes
While these quotes sum up the history of the troubled Obamacare exchanges thus far, the most interesting quotes in the days ahead could very well be the stock quotes of companies directly connected to how well the exchanges operate. Shares of both CGI Group and UnitedHealth have weathered the technical issues relatively well, but they’re really not the most affected by what happens. Hospitals and insurance companies bear the biggest risks if Americans don’t sign up for health insurance on the exchanges.

With more problems occurring on the federally operated exchanges than state-run exchanges, companies that operate in states relying on the federal healthcare.gov website could be the most affected if the problems aren’t resolved timely. Tenet Healthcare (NYSE:THC) , for example, runs hospitals in 10 states. Nine of those states use Healthcare.gov rather than their own exchange. Tenet’s stock has nearly doubled over the last year in anticipation of benefits from Obamacare.

WellPoint (NYSE:WLP) stands out as the major health insurer most closely affiliated with the Obamacare exchanges. The company sells insurance in 14 states — and participates in the exchanges in each of those states. However, half of those states run their own exchange while the other half rely on the federally operated website. That potentially lessons the pain for the insurer in the event the federal website continues to experience problems.

It’s quite possible that Zients’ November time frame proves accurate and most problems with the exchanges are resolved by late November. Tenet, WellPoint, and others could see their shares move higher. However, if his prediction is as on track as earlier statements from key officials, shares of some hospital chains and health insurers will probably suffer more than the federal contractors. Those stock market quotes might speak the loudest of all.

The article 5 Quotes That Sum Up Obamacare Exchanges Woes originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Keith Speights has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends UnitedHealth Group. It recommends and owns shares of WellPoint. 

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

iPhone 5s. Source: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).

Investors weren’t quite sure how to digest Apple‘s latest digits initially, as shares were rather volatile in after-hours trading last night. They jumped on the headline beats, but dropped precipitously on concerns around margin guidance. Revenue came in at $37.5 billion, which translated into net income of $7.5 billion, or $8.26 per share.

Shares opened slightly higher this morning, as concerns have eased. Here’s what Apple investors need to know.

“It’s going to be an iPad Christmas” (unless you want a Retina Mini)
iPhone sales were rock solid at 33.8 million, well ahead of investor expectations. Investors already knew that Apple had 9 million in the bag from its iPhone launch weekend, and the iPhone 5s was severely constrained for the nine days or so it was available during the quarter. Supply is still limited and Apple exited the quarter with a “significant backlog,” but production continues to ramp each week.

There were about 1.8 million iPhones in transit at the time, which were included in channel inventory but were on their way directly to customers. iPhone channel inventory was at the low end of Apple’s target range, showing it’s still having trouble keeping up with demand.

iPad Mini with Retina display. Source: Apple.

iPad units were a little light at 14.1 million, but that’s somewhat expected with the refresh that took place this month. While the iPhone gets included in and boosts the September quarter to a small degree, the iPad does not. Tim Cook is so confident in the new iPad lineup that he predicts that “it’s going to be an iPad Christmas.”

More challenging will be Apple’s ability to satisfy demand for the new Retina iPad Mini. Apple knows how many it will be able to make, but the company won’t know demand until it begins shipping. Cook said it’s “unclear” if Apple will have enough, which is really just a modest way of saying they won’t.

Free comes at a cost
Apple made plenty of headlines last week when it announced that it was making OS X Mavericks and iWork free from here on out for new customers. Well, just like your mother used to tell you, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Due to free future software upgrades (especially for iOS), Apple has always deferred a portion of revenue from device sales. With the company giving more away now, these deferrals are increasing. For iOS devices, Apple is now deferring $15 to $25 per unit, which is an increase of around $5, which is then recognized over the subsequent two years. For Macs, we’re talking about $20 to $40 in deferrals, an increase of $20, which is recognized over four years.

The net result of these is that Apple expects a sequential increase in deferred revenue of $900 million in the December quarter. This is also affecting Apple’s gross margin guidance, which had initially disappointed investors. Backing out these deferrals, analysts were actually impressed with the guidance. Investors apparently were too, since shares immediately jumped upon this revelation.

Some analysts are estimating the negative impact of this deferral at around 150 to 160 basis points. My estimates come out a little bit more conservative.

Source: Apple and author’s calculations. Guidance midpoints used.

Analysts may only be adding the $900 million to the gross margin line, which would result in 160 basis points of additional margin. However, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said this should be included in both the revenue and gross profit line items, and that the deferrals are a dollar-for-dollar reduction, which is how I arrived at my figures above.

Apple to Icahn: It’s not me, it’s you
Despite Carl Icahn’s call for a $150 billion repurchase program, Apple slowed the rate of its share buybacks this quarter. During the June quarter, Apple repurchased $16 billion in shares. In the September quarter, that figure declined to $4.9 billion. Retiring about 10.4 million shares puts Apple’s average price paid around $472.

Remember that $12 billion of the June quarter repurchases was made through an accelerated repurchase program, with only $4 billion in open market purchases. All $4.9 billion of this quarter’s buybacks were open market, so in this sense there was an increase in regular activity while the accelerated program took advantage of low prices earlier in the year.

That means that in fiscal 2014, Apple bought back $22.9 billion of stock, or over a third of the $60 billion total authorization that’s good through the end of calendar 2015.

Icahn thinks Apple is undervalued, and Apple clearly agreed wholeheartedly during the June quarter as shares traded as low as $390. From here on out, Apple plans to be “thoughtful and deliberate” with changes to its capital return program, and ultimately appreciates input from investors — be it Icahn or David Einhorn. Any changes will be announced in early 2014.

Greater China is bouncing back
Instead of giving out Greater China revenue including retail this quarter, Tim Cook provided the figure for the full fiscal year, which was $27 billion. That puts fiscal fourth quarter Greater China revenue including retail at $6 billion, a sequential increase of 22%. The sequential drop in Greater China revenue in the previous quarter to $4.9 billion was a little disconcerting, so it’s good to see sales in the Middle Kingdom start to rebound despite Apple’s high-end pricing strategy with the iPhone.

Source: Conference calls.

China was included in the first wave of iPhone launch countries this year for the first time ever, which helped. The same will be true for the iPad Air when it launches this week. With the eagerly anticipated China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) deal expected in November to coincide with the carrier’s TD-LTE network rollout, the Greater China business should continue higher into next quarter. After that, the Chinese New Year and associated holiday shopping season will subsequently boost fiscal second quarter results.

It’s the time of the season
The September quarter is typically a transitional one for Apple, particularly with its recent product cycle shift where it launches its most meaningful products in the fall. Apple just closed out a great fiscal year, and continued to tease at new product categories (and new markets) coming next year.

Following a year of investor pessimism, it’s time to be optimistic again.

The article 4 Things You Need to Know About Apple Earnings originally appeared on Fool.com.

Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and China Mobile. 

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Sears may separate Lands’ End, Auto Center businesses (Reuters)
Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD) is considering separating its Lands’ End clothing and Sears Auto Center businesses into independently managed operations as part of its turnaround plan, after another quarter of declining same-store sales. The company, headed by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, said on Tuesday same-store sales for the 12-weeks ended Oct. 26 fell 3.7 percent. Sears said it expects to post a net loss of between $532 million and $582 million for the third quarter ending Nov. 2. Sears’ sales have declined since 2005 as the company battles intense competition from Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).

High Five for Largest Hedge Fund Start-ups (WSJ)
Only 86 European offshore hedge funds launched in 2012, according to trade magazine EuroHedge, the lowest number of new funds since the data provider began tracking the industry in 2000. Barriers to entry have risen, and on top of this, last year managers also had the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis to grapple with, making investors uncertain and risk-averse. Despite the record low number of launches, those that did take off were bigger. The average size of new funds was more than $100 million, compared with less than $50 million 10 years ago, according to EuroHedge.

Signia Wealth Names New Hedge Fund Head (Finalternatives)
Signia Wealth has snagged an Amundi Asset Management executive to lead its hedge fund effort. Michael Rosenthal was named head of hedge fund investment at the London-based firm. He joins from Amundi, where he spent 10 years, most recently as co-head of hedge fund investment and head of the French firm’s London office. “Michael is widely recognized as a leading expert in his field and we are extremely pleased to welcome him on board,” Signia CEO Nathalie Dauriac-Stoebe said.

Fleckenstein Says Last Stand Will Be ‘Shooting Fish In A Barrel’ (Finalternatives)
William Fleckenstein’s upcoming return to short-selling will be his swan song. The Fleckenstein Capital manager elaborated on his plans for his RTM 2.0 fund, which is set to debut early next year, five years after he shuttered his last short-only hedge fund, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. And he made clear that there would be no RTM 3.0. “This is going to be my last, quote-unquote, campaign,” the 60-year-old said, noting that his wife was “remarkably subdued” when he told her he planned to go back into shorting. And since its his final battle, so to speak, he’s hoping to amass a lot of firepower before launching his attack.

Anthony Scaramucci Went On Such An Epic Rant Defending Steve Cohen That CNBC Delayed Its Commercial Break (Businessinsider)
Skybridge Capital’s Anthony “Mooch” Scaramucci went on an epic rant this afternoon on CNBC’s “Fast Money” after the news broke that SAC Capital and U.S. prosecutors could reach a settlement deal in the coming days. Scaramucci has been a vocal supporter of embattled billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen. Cohen’s Stamford, Connecticut-based SAC Capital has been criminally charged for insider trading. SAC was charged with four counts of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud. SAC could face a possible fine north of $1 billion and have to admit guilt.

Cerberus Starts Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Hedge Fund (BusinessWeek)
Cerberus Capital Management LP, the $20 billion New York-based firm focused on distressed assets, started a fund to invest in commercial mortgage debt, according to a letter to investors obtained by Bloomberg News. The Cerberus CMBS Opportunities Fund, which began Oct. 7, can bet on and against senior and subordinated commercial mortgage-backed securities, interest-only securities, commercial real estate collateralized-debt obligations and mezzanine loans, according to the letter. The "new issue market has grown steadily since 2009 with 2013 issuance ahead of last year's pace," the firm wrote.

Awaiting SAC Capital’s settlement (CNBC)

The article 4 Things You Need to Know on Oct. 29 originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Jack Kramer has no position in any stocks mentioned. Fool contributor Nicolas Martell has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Burger King Worldwide (NYSE:BKW). The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.