David Einhorn's Hedge Fund Resurgence Faces Mexican Tariff Test

(Bloomberg) -- David Einhorn’s recovery this year, spurred partly by his big bet on General Motors Co., has been jolted by President Donald Trump’s threat of a trade war with Mexico.

Einhorn’s hedge fund, Greenlight Capital, counts GM as its largest U.S. publicly disclosed position. The automaker’s stock is among the hardest hit in the industry after Trump said he would slap tariffs of as much as 25% on goods from Mexico, the largest source of U.S. vehicle and auto-parts imports. GM dropped 4.5% at 11:10 a.m. and is down about 15% since the beginning of May amid a loss in U.S. market share.

Greenlight has been resurgent in 2019, gaining almost 19% through April after suffering its worst year on record in 2018. Now Einhorn’s bet on GM, which had a market value of about $338 million at the end of March, threatens to stall his recovery.

But Einhorn has a winner in Tesla Inc. His fund’s short position against the electric automaker has worked as the shares have nosedived by more than 40% this year. Shares were little changed Friday morning.

A representative for Greenlight declined to comment.

--With assistance from David Welch.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brandon Kochkodin in New York at bkochkodin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Mirabella at amirabella@bloomberg.net, Vincent Bielski, Melissa Karsh

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