Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett doubled down on his Large Tech bets in the course of the second quarter – whilst different billionaire traders offered off their holdings as fears mounted a few market crash.

The agency headed by the “Oracle of Omaha” added almost 4 million shares of Apple inventory in the course of the three-month interval ending in June, an SEC submitting late Monday revealed.

On the time, the tech-heavy Nasdaq had fallen right into a bear market, outlined as a decline of 20% or extra off a latest excessive.

The wager elevated Berkshire Hathaway’s stake to 894.eight million shares of Apple, which represents its largest particular person holding.

Berkshire additionally boosted its stake in big Amazon, including one other 10 million shares, in addition to online game big Activision Blizzard. The agency additionally poured billions into oil producers Occidental Petroleum and Chevron whereas shedding shares of Basic Motors and Verizon.

Berkshire slowed the tempo of its purchases as market circumstances worsened within the second quarter, including simply $6 billion of inventory in comparison with $51 billion in additions in the course of the first quarter, in accordance with Barron’s.

However the bullish exercise stood in distinction to that of different hedge fund managers who’ve dump inventory holdings in droves because the Federal Reserve’s coverage tightening prompts concern about an financial recession.

Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller was one of many outstanding bears. His Duquesne Household Workplace offered off the whole lot of its total $199 million wager on Amazon shares within the second quarter, in accordance with its 13-F submitting. The workplace additionally in the reduction of on its Microsoft place.

“My finest guess is that we’re six months right into a bear market,” Druckenmiller stated throughout a June 9 on the 2022 Sohn Funding Convention, in accordance with Bloomberg. “For these tactically buying and selling, it’s attainable the primary leg of that has ended. However I feel it’s extremely, extremely possible that the bear market has a methods to run.”

Whereas slicing again on Large Tech giants, Duquesne added a $96.three million stake in Eli Lilly and a $29.7 million in Moderna Inc.

Mega-billionaire David Tepper’s Appaloosa Administration and Dan Loeb’s Third Level had been amongst companies that offered shares of Microsoft – with the latter dumping its total place.

Traders are slicing their publicity to unstable property, corresponding to some high-growth tech shares and cryptocurrencies, because the Fed strikes ahead with sharper-than-normal rate of interest hikes.

Michael Burry, the hedge fund wizard made well-known within the 2015 movie “The Large Brief,” opted to dump his agency Scion Capital Administration’s total inventory portfolio within the second quarter, together with shares of Fb mum or dad Meta and Google mum or dad Alphabet.

The selloff occurred as Burry repeatedly warned that US shares had been set for a serious downturn within the coming months.