On Wednesday, investors were watching quarterly filings to evaluate how some of the world’s largest money managers were positioning at the end of Q2, a period that saw a series of record high levels in the S&P 500 that came before the more recent turmoil in U.S. stocks.
Although they are backward looking and don’t show current holdings, the 13-F filings are filed at the end of each quarter and are one of the few ways to obtain a glimpse of how often-secretive market participants like sovereign wealth funds and hedge funds are positioned.
From the beginning of Apr. until the end of Jun. the S&P 500 rose close to 4% and notched 9 straight record highs in a rally driven by excitement over AI and expectations that the Federal Reserve would be able to push U.S. inflation lower without hurting growth.
Markets turned volatile at the beginning of the third quarter. Worries about elevated valuations hit many of the tech heavyweights in the market, including chipmaker Nvidia , the poster child of the artificial intelligence rally.
Markets were roiled further by worries over the U.S. economy and a rate hike by the Bank of Japan, leading to a sharp drop in the S&P 500. The index recovered most of those losses in recent days.
