NEW YORK (AP) — Fortress Investment Group LLC is closing a major hedge fund and parting ways with the money manager who ran it amid the turmoil that has roiled financial markets around the world.

The Fortress Macro Fund will close by the end of the year after suffering a sharp decline in value. Regulatory filings show the fund had declined by 17.5 percent through the first nine months of this year.

Fund manager Michael Novogratz, Fortress principal, will retire by the end of the year. Novogratz called the past two years “extremely challenging.”

The 13-year-old fund specialized in investments that aimed to take advantage of shifts in the global economy. It had $2.3 billion under management as of June 30.

The money will be returned to investors.

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