The Morning Brief: Chanos Talks Down PC Stocks; Jana Partners Chalks Up Partial Win

Renowned short-seller James Chanos of Kynikos Associates is somewhat bullish on stocks in general, echoing Omega Advisors’ Leon Cooperman’s pat commentary on the stock market being “The best house in a bad neighborhood.” In an interview with Yahoo’sDaily Ticker, Chanos recommended staying away from the personal computer segment in general. “I’ve been a big bear for the last year and a half, two years, in the PC space,” Chanos said. “I think that we are seeing a secular headwind in that business, as more and more people go to mobility, tablets and the cloud. The PC-centric space is going to increasingly see negative surprises.”

—

Jana Partners is declaring a partial victory in its proxy fight with Agrium unofficially. The hedge fund announced that founder Barry Rosenstein and David Bullock, a former chief financial officer of Graham Packaging Co., “appear to have enough votes” to be elected to the fertilizer company’s board. “While only Agrium knows the vote results for both sides, based on the number of votes received by these nominees and the typical turnout for contested Canadian elections, and leaving aside the potential impact of Agrium’s offer to pay financial advisors and brokers for favorable votes, it appears that both will be elected,” Jana said in its press release. The firm also said that some shareholders told the hedge fund that Agrium contacted them after Friday’s voting deadline, and after Agrium received the results, asking them to switch their votes away from Jana’s nominees. “Agrium’s meeting rules permit it to extend the voting deadline without public notice, if doing so would help the current board win reelection,” the hedge fund firm said.

—

Mariner Investment Group launched the Mariner Incubation Fund, a multistrategy fund that will oversee portfolios with initial investments ranging from $50 million to $100 million. It said Eric Pellicciaro, former head of global rates investments at BlackRock, will manage Alarium Mariner Global Macro, a global macro portfolio, within the new fund. Mariner Incubation Fund is looking to seed managers in the rate, credit and equity markets. The Alarium Mariner portfolio combines fundamental research with systematic and quantitative methods across the G20 liquid markets. Down the road, Mariner plans to launch the Alarium Global Macro Fund as a standalone vehicle. Mariner Investment Group manages about $10 billion of assets in single and multistrategy hedge funds, funds of funds and other alternative investments.

—

Ken Griffin’s Citadel reported a 5.9 percent passive stake in PDC Energy, a natural gas company. Its stock, which climbed more than 1 percent at one point on Monday, closed down slightly at $46.66.

Separately, Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors has disclosed a 5.1 percent stake in footware retailer Skechers USA, whose stock gained 4.47 percent Monday to close at $21.51.