As the first alternative asset manager to report third-quarter earnings this year, Blackstone Group on Thursday gave a glimpse into the impact of public market volatility on its holdings. Blackstone’s private equity business was slow in deploying capital during the quarter. Speaking on a conference call Thursday morning to discuss the earnings, President Hamilton “Tony” James said the slower investment pace wasn’t due to a lack of debt financing, but instead resulted from overly high corporate valuations. He pointed to the pending merger between Dell Inc. and EMC Corp. as evidence that credit markets are deep enough to support large...