Family offices added US stocks ahead of Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’

[LONDON] Investment firms for the world’s wealthy increased their stock bets ahead of US President Donald Trump imposing new tariffs that sent global markets into a tailspin before eventually clawing back losses.

Family offices for a European dynasty, hedge fund billionaire Noam Gottesman and duty-free shopping tycoon Alan Parker all boosted US equity investments in the three months ended Mar 31, according to 13F regulatory filings, days before Trump’s “Liberation Day” sparked market chaos.

Alta Advisers, a London-based investment firm for members of Sweden’s billionaire Rausing family, increased its allocations to more than 100 publicly traded companies in the US during the period, including mega-cap technology giants Nvidia, Apple and Amazon.com, the filings show.

Gottesman’s Toms Capital similarly added a position in Nvidia as well as eight other stocks, while the Parker family’s Kemnay Advisory Services increased its bets on more than a dozen US-listed companies.

The moves underscore how many investors were caught off-guard in the turmoil stemming from Trump’s Apr 2 announcement of steep tariffs that devastated financial assets, wiping out some US$6 trillion in market value from US stocks in just two trading days. The S&P 500 Index has climbed about 19 per cent since this year’s low on Apr 8.

Some of the world’s rich, including Mexico’s Carlos Slim and Sweden’s billionaire Persson dynasty, added to stocks they already owned amid the market chaos, leaving them sitting on large paper gains.

Money managers overseeing more than US$100 million in US equities are required to file a 13F form within 45 days of the end of each quarter to list their holdings in stocks that trade on US exchanges. It offers one of the few glimpses into how hedge funds and some large family offices invest.

Other highlights from 13F filings include:

• Stan Druckenmiller’s Duquesne family office bought US software companies, including a new investment of US$87 million in Docusign and US$51 million of CCC Intelligent Solutions.

• David Tepper’s Appaloosa LP sold its entire US$145 million stake in semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices and a US$98 million stake in FedEx. It added an US$89 million position in Deutsche Bank.

• David Bonderman’s Wildcat Capital Management added a new investment of US$16.7 million in Acuren, an engineering and inspection-services firm. BLOOMBERG