A man who famously made a fortune by predicting the collapse of the US housing market in 2008 now appears to be suggesting that two major stock markets will tumble in value.
Michael Burry, the hedge fund boss featured in The Big Short, in which he was played by Christian Bale, held negative options on both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 at the end of the second quarter, securities fillings show.
He has options with a notional value of $886m (£698m) against the S&P 500.
In addition, he has $738.8m (£582m) in options against the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF – a fund on the Nasdaq comprising high-profile tech firms including Apple, Microsoft and Tesla.
Mr Burry’s bet on a market downturn amounts to more than 90% of his firm’s portfolio, CNN reports.
It is not immediately clear why he is taking such negative positions – the S&P 500 is up roughly 17% for the year to date, while the Nasdaq 100 is up almost 39% over the same period.
While Mr Burry, who founded Scion Asset Management, appears to have placed a large proportion of his assets at risk, it is not clear what his fund paid for the “put options”.
Such options give the right to sell shares at a fixed price in future, and are typically bought to express a bearish or defensive view.
Mr Burry appears to have been expecting a market collapse for much of the year.
By March, however, he had backtracked and said he was “wrong to say sell”.
The Big Short – initially a bestselling book published in 2010 – told the story of the people who believed the housing bubble was going to burst – including Mr Burry, who is thought to have made about $100m from the crash.
In addition to Bale, the movie version starred Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt.
An American Airlines flight travelling from New York to New Delhi was diverted midair due to a “bomb threat”.
Flight 292 landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport “due to a possible security issue,” the airline said in a statement on Sunday, adding later the threat “was determined to be non-credible”.
The airline did not clarify what the security issue was, but a source familiar with the situation told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News it was a bomb threat sent via email.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew reported the security issue.
“Safety and security are our top priorities, and we apologise to our customers for the inconvenience,” the airline said in a statement.
Image: The view from the cockpit of the fighter jet. Pic: Italian air force/Reuters
Image: Pic: Italian air force/Reuters
The flight requested a diversion to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport at around 2pm local time, Roberto Rao, a spokesperson for the airport.
“We immediately agreed and organised a safe landing,” Mr Rao told NBC News.
“We don’t know what the security concern was, but my opinion is that it was serious enough to divert the plane, but not urgent, because we received the alert when the plane was over the Caspian Sea, a three hours’ flight from Rome.”
Once in Italian airspace, the plane was escorted by two Italian air force fighter jets and landed in Rome at around 5.30pm local time.
Image: The flight on the ground in Rome. Pic: AP
‘What’s going on here?’
Neeraj Chopra, one of the 199 passengers on board, said the captain announced the plane had to turn around about three hours before it was supposed to land in New Delhi because of a change in “security status”.
Mr Chopra, who was traveling to India to visit family, described the mood on board as calm until the captain later announced that fighter jets would be escorting their plane to Rome.
“I felt a little panic of, okay, what’s going on here?” Mr Chopra told the Associated Press. “There’s got to be like something bigger going on here.”
Jonathan Bacon, 22, added that once on the ground, all passengers were loaded on to buses and taken to the terminal, where each passenger and their personal items underwent additional security screenings that were time-consuming and felt “slightly heightened”.
More than two hours after landing, Mr Bacon and his friend said they were still waiting for their checked baggage. “It was definitely the longest flight to Europe I’ve ever taken,” he said.
American Airlines said the plane was inspected and cleared to depart again for New Delhi “as soon as possible” on Monday, after the crew gets some rest.
At least three people have died and two are injured after a boat capsized off the coast of New York, police in the US have said.
The vessel sent out a distress call from the Ambrose Channel just after noon on Sunday.
One of the injured is in a critical condition and another is described as stable, NBC, Sky’s US partner, said.
Five people were rescued from the water after the New York Fire Department (FDNY), the New York Police Department (NYPD), and the US Coast Guard responded to the call for help.
The boat capsized in an area known as Breezy Point, NBC said, quoting the NYPD.
Breezy Point is “a neighborhood at the tip of Queens’ Rockaway peninsula,” according to NBC New York, citing the Coast Guard.
Six people were said to be in the water after the boat capsized, the FDNY said.
Two of the victims were airlifted to Staten Island University Hospital and three were taken to Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, where its emergency medical crews were waiting to treat them, the agency said.
Four of the five people rescued from the sinking boat were unresponsive, and some of them were given CPR, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard said on Sunday night it is still searching for one person missing in the water roughly five miles (8km) southeast of Breezy Point.
Nothing else is known about the victims or what kind of boat was involved.
Police said it is not clear what happened but it did not appear the vessel collided with another boat. The Coast Guard said it was notified of a “vessel taking on water” and described the boat as “sinking”.
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