Amid an oil rally that has seen the United States Oil Fund (NYSEArca: USO), which tracks West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, climb nearly 9% over the past 90 days, investors are pouring back into select energy exchange traded funds.
Count Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management among them. USO hauled in $978.1 million in new assets this year and Point72 Asset Management has contributed to those inflows.
“The firm bought 1.305 million shares of the U.S. Oil Fund valued at about $22 million in the three months through March 31,” Moming Zhou reports for Bloomberg, citing a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
USO is a minor position for Point72, representing just 0.15% of the firm’s equity portfolio, according to Whale Wisdom. However. Point72’s USO stake is further evidence of increased ETF use by the hedge fund and family office communities. [Another Hedge Fund Legend Likes ETFs]
David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP boosted its exposure to two marquee broad market ETFs in the first quarter. The hedge fund owned $413 worth of the PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ), the Nasdaq-100 (NDQ) tracking ETF, at the end of the first quarter, reports Juliet Chung for the Wall Street Journal.
Appaloosa also owned $934 million of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) is the world’s largest ETF, at the end of the first quarter, according to the Journal. [Nasdaq ETFs Surge]
Last week, it was revealed that Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, added to its stake in SPY last quarter. SPY is Bridgewater’s second-largest equity position behind the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO).
Bridgewater owns positions in several other ETFs, including the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: EEM) and the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: LQD). [Bridgewater Alters ETF Positions]
USO is far from Point72’s only ETF positions. According to Whale Wisdom, the firm owned put and call options on SPY at the end of the first quarter as well as puts on the CurrencyShares Euro Currency Trust (NYSEArca: FXE) and the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSEArca: IWM).
Cohen’s firm also held calls on the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDX), the largest and most heavily traded gold miners ETF, EEM and the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (NYSEArca: FXI) at the end of the first quarter. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (NYSEArca: XHB) represented 0.2% of Point72’s equity portfolio at the end of March.
Over 130 13F filers, including nearly 60 that had created new positons, showed stakes in USO at the end of the first quarter, according to Whale Wisdom.
United States Oil Fund
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of EEM, LQD, IWM, QQQ and SPY.