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Buffett adds to Occidental stake — $287M

Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's Omaha-based holding company, acquired 4.1 million additional shares of Occidental Petroleum — an oil and gas producer with operations across Texas, New Mexico, and the Middle East — between April 14 and April 17. The purchase brings Berkshire's stake above 29%. With oil hovering near $82 a barrel and energy stocks down 6% on tariff fears this month, Buffett is treating the selloff as a discount.

Jensen Huang buys Nvidia on the open market — $13.1M

Nvidia's CEO and co-founder purchased 65,000 shares of Nvidia — the Santa Clara chipmaker whose graphics processors power most of the world's AI data centers — on April 16, his first open-market purchase since 2021. Nvidia shares are down roughly 28% from their January peak on export control uncertainty. When a CEO buys shares with their own money rather than receiving them as compensation, it typically signals confidence in the company's near-term trajectory.

Pershing Square adds to Alphabet position — ~$440M

Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square added approximately 2.8 million shares of Alphabet — the parent company of Google and YouTube — in the week ending April 18, per 13F supplemental filings. Alphabet trades at about 17x forward earnings, near a five-year low, as antitrust pressure and AI competition from newer models weigh on sentiment. Ackman has publicly argued the selloff is overdone.

JPMorgan director purchases bank shares — $2.4M

Board director Linda Bammann acquired 10,500 shares of JPMorgan Chase — the largest U.S. bank by assets — on April 15, two days after the bank reported first-quarter earnings that beat expectations. Financial stocks have fallen nearly 14% since February as recession fears build. This is the first open-market board-level purchase at JPMorgan in over two years.

Druckenmiller adds gold miner exposure — ~$190M

Stanley Druckenmiller's family office Duquesne Family Office built a new position in Agnico Eagle Mines — a Toronto-based gold producer operating mines in Canada, Finland, and Mexico — in the week ending April 17. Gold crossed $3,300 per ounce this month for the first time ever, and gold mining stocks tend to move faster than gold itself when the metal rallies. Druckenmiller has been vocal about dollar debasement risk.

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Zuckerberg trims Meta holdings — $94M

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 210,000 shares of Meta Platforms — the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — between April 14 and April 17, under a pre-scheduled 10b5-1 plan. These automatic selling plans are set up in advance so insiders can sell without being accused of trading on inside information. Meta is down 19% from its February highs, though still well above year-ago levels.

Amazon CFO exits a third of her position — $31M

Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky sold 175,000 shares of Amazon — the e-commerce and cloud computing giant — on April 15. Amazon's AWS cloud division still accounts for the majority of the company's operating profit, but tariff-driven fears about consumer spending have put pressure on the stock. The sale was under a scheduled plan filed in January.

Palantir insiders reduce exposure — $58M

Multiple Palantir Technologies insiders — the Denver-based data analytics company that sells software to U.S. government agencies and corporations — filed Form 4 disclosures showing combined sales of $58 million between April 14 and April 16. Palantir has been one of this year's most volatile stocks, up nearly 60% in the first quarter on AI and defense spending enthusiasm before pulling back sharply.

Soros Fund exits Boeing stake — ~$72M

Soros Fund Management closed its position in Boeing — the Chicago-based aerospace manufacturer still working through production quality problems and a machinists' strike aftermath — per a 13F amendment filed last week. Boeing shares are down 31% year-to-date, pressured by tariff costs on imported components and a softening outlook for commercial aircraft deliveries.

Tiger Global trims Apple position — ~$210M

Tiger Global Management reduced its Apple — the Cupertino iPhone maker — holding by roughly 1.1 million shares in the week ending April 18. Apple has more exposure to China trade tensions than any other mega-cap: it assembles most of its hardware there and generates about 18% of revenue from Chinese customers. The stock has recovered somewhat from April's tariff-driven lows but remains 22% off its all-time high.

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Energy

+1.2%

Materials

+0.7%

Utilities

+0.3%

Health Care

−0.5%

Financials

−1.6%

Cons. Discr.

−2.1%

Technology

−2.9%

Comm. Svcs.

−3.2%

Nate's Take

In 25 years around institutional money, I've watched the pattern repeat enough to recognize it. When a CEO buys shares with his own cash — not a compensation grant, not a stock option, but a check written against a personal account — that's a different statement. Jensen Huang at Nvidia, buying $13 million of his own stock into a 28% drawdown, is saying something specific about where he thinks the chip cycle goes from here. Buffett adding to Occidental when oil is under tariff pressure is the same signal. These aren't the trades of people who think things are fine right now. They're the trades of people who think the current price is wrong. Whether it is depends on whether the trade war has a ceiling. That's the only question that matters this week.

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VIX call buying at highest level since 2022 — VIX 34.2

The VIX — the Chicago Board Options Exchange's Volatility Index, sometimes called the "fear gauge" because it measures how much traders are paying to protect against big market moves — closed Monday at 34.2. Options traders are buying VIX calls (bets that volatility will rise further) at the highest rate since October 2022. Institutions that hold large stock portfolios are paying up to insure against another sharp move down. The cost of that insurance tells you something about how nervous the people who manage real money actually are.

Gold above $3,300 as dollar weakens — $3,318/oz

Gold set a new all-time high above $3,300 per ounce this week as the U.S. dollar index — a measure of how much the dollar is worth against other currencies — fell to its lowest level since early 2022. When the dollar weakens, gold tends to rise because it becomes cheaper for overseas buyers. More importantly, dollar weakness at a time of rising deficits is a signal that global investors are questioning whether U.S. assets deserve their traditional "safe haven" premium. Central banks in China, Poland, and India added to gold reserves in March.

Treasury market sending mixed signals — 10Y 4.61%

The 10-year Treasury yield — the interest rate the U.S. government pays to borrow money for a decade, which also sets the floor for mortgage rates and corporate borrowing costs — closed Monday at 4.61%, up from 4.38% two weeks ago. In a standard recession scare, yields fall as investors buy bonds for safety. The fact that yields are rising while stocks fall suggests some investors are selling Treasuries, not buying them. JPMorgan strategists noted last week that foreign holders appear to be reducing U.S. bond exposure, which would put upward pressure on rates even as growth fears mount.

Put options on semiconductor ETF surge — 3.2× avg vol

Put options — contracts that pay off if a stock or fund falls in value, used either to hedge a position or bet on a decline — on the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (a fund holding chipmakers including Nvidia, TSMC, and Broadcom) traded at 3.2 times their average daily volume last week. The concentration of hedging activity in semiconductors specifically reflects anxiety about further U.S. export restrictions on advanced chips to China, which remains one of the industry's largest end markets.

Bridgewater rotates into inflation-linked bonds — ~$1.2B

Bridgewater Associates — the world's largest hedge fund, managing roughly $125 billion out of Westport, Connecticut — added approximately $1.2 billion to TIPS positions last week. TIPS stands for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities: U.S. government bonds whose principal adjusts upward with inflation, so they pay more if prices rise. The bet reflects concern that tariffs will push consumer prices higher while growth slows — a combination called stagflation that is historically difficult for traditional stock-and-bond portfolios to handle.