A Donald Trump-inspired stock market rally, in the wake of the US election, dealt a billion dollar blow to financier George Soros.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the veteran hedge fund manager lost nearly $1bn (£820m) as a result of equities rising sharply in the aftermath of Mr Trump’s election victory in November.
But the paper reports that Stanley Druckenmiller, Soros’s former deputy, had positioned himself more favourably for the market move enabling him to chalk up significant gains.
The US election, broadly considered the most divisive in history, sent markets roiling — both before and after the result was announced.
America’s primary stock market index, the S&P 500, fell 70 points in the two weeks before election day as the prospect of a Trump victory became more likely and markets worried about what the unpredictable candidate would do in the White House
Since then however, the President-elect’s promises to press ahead with a vast infrastructure spending spree and implement business-friendly policies have helped the index to surge 5.6 per cent from those lows.
For Mr Soros, who placed bearish bets in the aftermath of Mr Trump’s victory, this has been bad news. Nonetheless, the Journal reports that the picture could have been worse if the billionaire investor hadn’t exited some of those trades in late 2016.
Mr Soros, has been a vocal critic of Mr Trump. In late November he pledged $10m from his Open Society Foundation, which promotes liberal values around the world, to help combat the rise in reported hate crimes since the election.
Due in part to the “incendiary rhetoric” of the President-elect, “dark forces have been awakened” since Mr Trump’s victory, Mr Soros told the New York Times back then.
“We must do something to push back against what’s happening here,” Mr Soros told the newspaper. He reportedly said he was “deeply troubled” by the rise in incidents of harassment.
“Certainly [feelings of hatred] got inflamed as a result of the campaign,” he admitted. “It really broke out afterwards.” However, he said his donation was not intended to be a political statement about the election of Mr Trump.
Right-wing elements in Hungarian-born Mr Soros’ home country have also been emboldened by Mr Trump’s victory.
Szilard Nemeth, deputy leader of the ruling Fidesz party told reporters on Tuesday that all NGO’s linked to Mr Soros would be “swept out” because they “serve global capitalists and back political correctness over national governments”.
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