Hedge funds are eyeing both publicly traded firms and unlisted companies short on cash, with the assumption that massive government stimulus packages, like the US$2.2 trillion approved Friday, will revive markets and the economy at large.
Billionaire Kenneth Griffin was one of the first to warn of the Covid-19 outbreak's dangers, and his hedge fund Citadel has gone so as far as to create a specific investment vehicle for assets battered by the virus fallout. "It's not a Chinese health crisis; it is a global health crisis," Mr Griffin said of the new coronavirus in an early February speech to The Economic Club of New York.
Some of the most vital sectors of the economy are now in dire straits: airlines are on their knees and will get a bailout, though perhaps not as large as they wanted, while hotels and restaurants have laid off workers in droves and shale oil companies are in agony.