NEW YORK: Investors are watching quarterly filings to get a glimpse at how some of the world’s biggest money managers were positioned at the end of the second quarter, a period marked by a series of record highs in the S&P 500 that preceded more recent turmoil in US stocks.

Filed at the end of each quarter, the 13-F filings are one of the few ways to get a snapshot of how often-secretive market participants such as hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds are positioned, though they are backward-looking and do not reveal current holdings.

The S&P 500 rose nearly 4% from the beginning of April until the end of June, notching nine consecutive record highs in a rally fuelled by excitement over artificial intelligence (AI) and expectations that the Federal Reserve will be able to lower US inflation without hurting growth.

Markets turned frothy at the start of the third quarter.

Worries over rich valuations hit many of the market’s tech heavyweights, including chipmaker Nvidia, the poster-child of the AI rally.

Concerns over the US economy and a rate hike from the Bank of Japan roiled markets further, spurring a sharp early-August plunge in the S&P 500.

The index has recently made up much of those losses.

Tech-focused equity hedge fund added 77,459 shares in Apple while dumping all 110,000 of its shares in Alphabet and also 46,000 shares in Microsoft in the second quarter.

It trimmed its stakes in Meta and Nvidia. It added Dell Technologies, buying US$17.4mil worth or 126,279 shares.

Lee Ainslie’s hedge fund more than tripled its shares in Microsoft to 600,000 shares in the second quarter. It increased its positions in Meta and Amazon, but slashed its stake in Alphabet.

Maverick trimmed its Nvidia exposure.

Nvidia, which has helped lead the broader stock market higher this year, continued to gain interest from prominent investors including hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, which added approximately 1.5 million shares over the quarter.

Large asset managers including BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard made significant purchases as well.

Texas-based Twin Tree Asset Management was among the few funds that closed out of its Nvidia position by selling nearly 900,000 shares.

Chase Coleman’s hedge fund added 1.9 million shares in Qualcomm, totaling US$370mi. Outside of tech, it added a new US$1.2bil position in UnitedHealth Group - or 2.3 million shares.

It made no changes to its positions in so-called Magnificent Seven tech and growth stocks, which included Nvidia, Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.

Fund manager Michael Burry, whose bets against the US housing market before the 2008 financial crisis were chronicled in the movie “The Big Short,” reduced the number of companies in his portfolio to 10 in June from 16 in March.

Still, he added some new stocks, including real estate company Hudson Pacific Properties and Molina Healthcare, which provides healthcare services under the government-backed programs, and payments company Shift4.

The macro hedge fund run by Chris Rokos sold a US$164.9mil position in Apple - totalling 961,403 shares - that it held at the end of the first quarter, while also reducing its stake in Alphabet by almost 90%.

But Rokos increased its stakes in other Magnificent Seven stocks: Meta Platforms, Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon.

The family office of Robert Soros dissolved its 63,640-share stake in Microsoft, worth US$26.6mil at the end of March, and sold all 103,000 shares it owned in Advanced Micro Devices in the second quarter, while also reducing exposure to other big tech companies, such as Amazon, Uber Technologies , Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Meta.

 -Reuters