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Wall Street Wire
What the Smart Money Is Doing
| Thursday, April 16, 2026 | by Nate Fowler |
The S&P 500 closed Wednesday at a record 7,022.95, up 0.80%, and the Nasdaq finished at 24,016.02 — its 11th straight winning session, the longest such streak on record. The Dow slipped 72 points to 48,463.72; the VIX, a gauge of expected market swings, sat at 18.17. Driving the rally: hopes the U.S.-Iran ceasefire gets extended past Tuesday's deadline, and a record $20.6 billion quarter from Morgan Stanley. Insiders, meanwhile, spent the week doing something different from the indexes.
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Who Bought
What they bought and when
Jack Huang added $6.65M to 51Talk Online Education
51Talk runs an online English-tutoring platform for students across the Philippines and Southeast Asia. Huang is the chief executive. On April 1 he bought 309,660 shares in the open market — his 10th purchase in six months, bringing the running total to 1.74 million shares for roughly $35.3 million. Zero sales. When a founder keeps adding at a steady pace, it's the cleanest bullish signal an SEC filing offers.
Eric Sprott bought $7.73M of Hycroft Mining
Hycroft Mining operates a gold and silver mine in northern Nevada. Sprott, the Canadian precious-metals financier, acquired 200,000 shares on April 9 at $38.28–$39.06 through Sprott Mining Inc. The stock has returned 1,277% over 12 months. Buying this much of something already up that much says he thinks gold's move isn't finished.
Forager Fund added $2.4M of Repay Holdings
Repay Holdings is a payments processor — it handles consumer loan repayments for auto lenders, personal-loan firms, and healthcare billers. The stock is down 38% over six months and trades near its 52-week low of $2.30. Forager, a value-focused fund, stepped in April 1–2 at $2.42–$2.60 per share. Funds accumulate broken small-caps when they believe management can fix the revenue problem before the cash runs out.
Gavin Hattersley bought $106k of McCormick
McCormick sells Old Bay, Frank's RedHot, and a wide range of spices and flavorings to consumers and food manufacturers. Hattersley is a new director. On April 13 he purchased 2,000 shares at about $52.98. The dollar size is small, but new directors rarely make an open-market buy in their first weeks unless they think the stock is mispriced — this came just after the company announced its Unilever Foods combination.
Angeliki Frangou made her 17th Navios Maritime buy — $85k
Navios Maritime Partners owns and charters dry-bulk carriers, container ships, and tankers. Frangou is the chairwoman. On April 13 she added 1,204 shares for $84,568 — her 17th open-market purchase in six months, totaling $1.43 million. Zero sales in that window. Shipping stocks rise and fall with global trade flow, and steady insider buying matters more than any single-day tape.
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Who Sold
Exits and reductions
Velaga Ram sold $10.6M of Broadcom
Broadcom designs the custom AI chips that power data centers for Meta, Google, and other hyperscalers. Ram is President of the Infrastructure Solutions Group — the AI chip business itself. He sold 30,215 shares April 8–9 at about $352. The stock closed Wednesday at $371, up 117% over 12 months. The head of the AI division selling at prices the stock has since moved past is worth paying attention to.
IKAV and VEPU trimmed $71.2M of MACH Natural Resources
MACH Natural Resources is an Oklahoma oil and gas producer organized as a partnership — unit holders receive direct cash distributions instead of dividends. Two European affiliate funds, together a ten-percent owner, sold 5.56 million common units on April 8 at $12.81. The sale came into the Iran-ceasefire oil swings, giving size sellers a window to exit before direction becomes clear.
Crestview Partners reduced $36.7M of Select Water Solutions
Select Water Solutions handles water for oil and gas drilling — sourcing, recycling, and disposal. The stock is up 94% over 12 months and trades at $15.16, near its 52-week high. Crestview, a private equity firm and long-term holder, sold 3.1 million Class A shares on April 8 at $15.12. A PE fund selling into strength near the highs is a routine rotation — the size is what makes it a signal.
AE Industrial sold $21M+ of Redwire across the week
Redwire is a space-infrastructure company — satellites, ground systems, and power systems for spacecraft. AE Industrial Partners sold 950,144 shares April 8–9 for $9.23 million at $9–$10, then filed a 13D amendment showing another 1.2 million shares sold April 10–14. Pace and size point to a fund exiting the position, not rebalancing inside it.
Lawrence Kurzius sold $9.47M of McCormick
This is where McCormick gets interesting. Kurzius, a longtime executive at the spice maker, sold 139,014 shares across seven trades for $9.47 million. CEO Brendan Foley sold another $3.75 million. Meanwhile Director Gavin Hattersley made the only insider purchase — $106k. Same company, same week, opposite directions. When a board splits like that, both sides are acting on information, not noise.
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Where the Money Is Moving
Sector performance — Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Technology
+1.5%
Cons. Disc.
+1.2%
Comm. Svcs.
+1.0%
Financials
+0.6%
Health Care
+0.3%
Cons. Staples
+0.1%
Real Estate
−0.1%
Energy
−0.3%
Utilities
−0.4%
Industrials
−0.5%
Materials
−0.7%
| Money flowing in Money flowing out |
AI names carried the tape. The defensive and resource sectors that led the first quarter — energy, utilities, materials — were on the other side of the trade Wednesday. It's a textbook risk-on day, but an unusually narrow one.
Nate's Take
Records everywhere — the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, Morgan Stanley's $20.6 billion revenue quarter — and yet the operators who actually run AI hardware are selling, not buying. Velaga Ram heads the AI chip business at Broadcom and he's been reducing exposure. Director Gayla Delly at Broadcom did the same. Meanwhile Jack Huang keeps adding to 51Talk Online Education and Eric Sprott keeps adding to Hycroft Mining. Two tapes are running at once — headline indexes in euphoria, and insiders at AI companies taking chips off the table while resource-linked allocators step in. That contrast is the story this week.
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Who's Hedging
Positions and signals
VIX at 18.17 — ahead of a real deadline
The VIX — sometimes called the fear gauge — measures how much the S&P 500 is expected to swing over the next 30 days. Readings under 20 mean investors see calm ahead; under 15 is real complacency. With the U.S.-Iran ceasefire expiring Tuesday and Pakistan's army chief shuttling between the two sides in Tehran, 18.17 looks low for the setup.
WTI crude near $91 signals a split market
West Texas Intermediate — the U.S. oil benchmark — settled Wednesday around $91.72. Brent, the international benchmark, closed at $95.77. If traders were convinced the ceasefire holds, oil would be $10 to $15 lower. If they were convinced it breaks, oil would be higher. The current level says options desks are hedging both outcomes.
Morgan Stanley raised $10B hours after record earnings
Morgan Stanley — the investment bank and wealth manager — posted a record quarter: $20.6 billion in revenue, $3.43 earnings per share, and record equity-trading results. Within hours, the firm launched one of the largest bond sales ever by a Wall Street bank, in four tranches from four-to-eleven-year maturities. Banks raise that much debt when they expect rates to fall or deal volume to arrive. Either read is a positioning statement.
Goldman says hedge funds cut tech the most in 5 years
Goldman Sachs' prime brokerage — the unit that lends shares and margin to hedge funds — reported funds piled back into bullish stock bets heading into the weekend U.S.-Iran talks, but simultaneously sold individual tech names at the fastest pace in five years. The pattern: long the broad index, short single tech names. Hedging the AI rally without leaving it.
Tuesday's ceasefire deadline — the real test
President Trump said this week that the U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran is "nearing its end." Pakistan's army chief traveled to Tehran specifically to help extend the ceasefire, which expires Tuesday. If it holds, oil falls and tech pushes higher. If it breaks, the VIX moves fast. Everything else in the tape right now is noise around that one date.
The Takeaway
Thursday's open will tell us whether the 11-day Nasdaq win streak has any more fuel in it. Between now and Tuesday, positioning matters more than price. Hedge funds are long the index and short individual tech names. Morgan Stanley raised $10 billion in bonds the same day it printed a record quarter. Oil sits at $91 waiting to pick a direction. The question isn't whether the market is overbought — it probably is. The question is whether the insiders or the headlines get the next move right.
— Nate Fowler
Who Bought · Who Sold · Who's Hedging
