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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway adds to Occidental Petroleum  $287M

Occidental Petroleum is one of the largest U.S. oil-and-gas producers, pulling crude from West Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Berkshire — Buffett's Omaha-based holding company — added roughly 4.3 million shares on April 15–16, bringing its total stake above 29%. The purchase arrived as Occidental's stock fell near a 52-week low, a pattern Buffett has followed consistently with this position: buy the dips, accumulate on weakness.

Jensen Huang buys Nvidia on the open market  $14.2M

Nvidia makes the graphics chips — called GPUs — that power most large AI models. CEO Jensen Huang purchased 100,000 shares on April 16 in what's called an open-market buy, meaning he paid the going stock price rather than exercising an option granted as compensation. When a CEO spends their own money in the open market, it typically reads as a vote of personal confidence in the company's direction.

Pershing Square builds a fresh stake in Alphabet  $1.1B

Alphabet is Google's parent company, operating the world's largest search engine and YouTube. Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square disclosed a new position of approximately 7.2 million shares, acquired through the week of April 14. Ackman cited Alphabet's advertising revenue resilience and its cloud computing division as the core thesis. The timing — into a 19% year-to-date decline — suggests a long-term entry, not a momentum trade.

Director at Caterpillar adds shares into the selloff  $2.8M

Caterpillar manufactures construction and mining equipment — the yellow machines that build roads, dig mines, and move earth. Board member David Calhoun purchased 12,000 shares on April 17 as the stock touched its lowest level in 14 months, driven by fears that tariff-related construction slowdowns will reduce orders. Directors buying at multi-year lows is one of the more reliable insider signals in my experience — they don't typically catch the exact bottom, but they're rarely wrong about the direction over 18 months.

Starboard Value discloses position in Kenvue  $420M

Kenvue makes consumer health brands like Tylenol, Neutrogena, and Band-Aid — spun out of Johnson & Johnson in 2023. Activist hedge fund Starboard Value, known for pressing management to cut costs and improve margins, filed a 13D (a disclosure required when an investor acquires more than 5% of a company) covering an 8.2% stake. Starboard rarely buys quietly — expect a public letter to the board within weeks.

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Mark Zuckerberg reduces Meta stake under 10b5-1 plan  $68M

Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Zuckerberg sold 175,000 shares on April 14–16 under a 10b5-1 plan — a pre-scheduled selling arrangement executives set up months in advance, specifically to avoid accusations of trading on inside information. These sales are routine at Meta and do not necessarily signal any view about the stock's near-term direction.

Tiger Global exits remaining Apple position  $340M

Apple makes iPhones, Macs, and runs the App Store. Tiger Global — a New York hedge fund that manages roughly $20 billion — liquidated its remaining 2.1 million Apple shares between April 14 and April 17. Tiger has been cutting tech exposure broadly since late 2025; the Apple exit completes that rotation. A full exit from a major position like this typically reflects a portfolio-level reallocation, not a specific negative view on Apple alone.

Salesforce CFO trims shares ahead of earnings  $9.4M

Salesforce sells customer relationship management software — the tools companies use to track sales pipelines and client communications. CFO Amy Weaver sold 45,000 shares on April 15 under a pre-set plan, roughly six weeks before the company's next earnings report. The proximity to earnings is worth noting; executives typically avoid selling in the weeks before a major announcement.

Coatue Management cuts Taiwan Semiconductor by half  $530M

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing — known as TSMC — produces the advanced chips used in iPhones, AI servers, and military hardware. The Taiwanese company manufactures chips designed by companies like Apple and Nvidia but doesn't design them itself. Coatue, a tech-focused hedge fund, reduced its TSMC position from 6.8 million shares to 3.2 million during the week. The timing aligns directly with the weekend tariff escalation — Coatue appears to have been reducing geopolitical risk exposure before markets closed Friday.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reduces Blue Chip estate trust holdings  $1.2B

Amazon runs the world's largest e-commerce marketplace and is the leading provider of cloud computing services through AWS. Bezos, the company's founder and executive chairman, sold approximately 7.3 million Amazon shares through a family trust between April 14 and April 17. Bezos has sold periodically for several years, primarily for philanthropic and investment diversification purposes. At this scale, the sale is notable for timing — not necessarily intent.

Energy held up on Friday as crude prices stayed supported by Middle East supply concerns — while Technology and Consumer Discretionary bore the full weight of the tariff selloff. That defensive rotation into oil and utilities, with broad-based selling in growth sectors, tells us where Friday's institutional money was heading before the weekend arrived.

Nate's Take

What I find striking about this week's trades is the divergence in conviction. Coatue was cutting Taiwan Semiconductor and Tiger Global was exiting Apple — both moves that read, in hindsight, as quiet preparation for exactly what the White House announced over the weekend. Meanwhile, Jensen Huang was buying Nvidia in the open market on Thursday and Friday, and Warren Buffett was adding to Occidental Petroleum. These aren't small trades placed by nervous hands. They're large, deliberate commitments made into a falling market by people who have seen this kind of volatility before. The tension heading into Monday is real: the same tariff escalation that validates Coatue's exit from TSMC also creates a direct headwind for Nvidia, whose best customers — the hyperscale data center companies in the U.S. — source their chips from TSMC's fabs in Taiwan. Whether Huang's purchase looks prescient or premature will depend on what the White House says this week about semiconductor exemptions. That is the number I'll be watching Monday morning.

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U.S.-China semiconductor tariffs confirmed at 145%  MACRO

The White House confirmed Saturday that tariffs — taxes on imported goods — on Chinese-made semiconductors (computer chips) will rise to 145% effective May 1. Beijing responded Sunday with a statement threatening retaliatory duties on U.S. agricultural and aerospace exports. A 145% tariff effectively prices most affected products out of the U.S. market. The companies most directly exposed are those that rely on Chinese chip assembly and packaging, including firms that outsource manufacturing to mainland China rather than Taiwan.

VIX options positioning signals continued volatility  OPTIONS

The VIX closed at 33.4 on Friday — significantly above its long-run average of around 20. More telling: options traders (who buy contracts giving them the right to buy or sell stocks at a set price in the future) were purchasing VIX call options in large size on Friday, betting the VIX would rise further. A rising VIX means investors expect more violent swings in stock prices. The most active strikes were at the 40 and 45 levels, suggesting institutional desks are positioned for another leg of market turbulence, not a quick recovery.

Goldman Sachs warns of earnings estimate cuts ahead  RESEARCH

Goldman Sachs published a weekend research note lowering its 2026 S&P 500 earnings estimate by 7%, citing tariff-related margin compression. In plain English: Goldman now expects U.S. companies to earn less money this year than previously forecast, because higher import costs will eat into profits. Goldman also reduced its year-end S&P 500 price target from 5,700 to 5,200. When Goldman's strategy team publishes a note like this over the weekend, institutional portfolio managers read it Sunday night and adjust Monday morning — that reaction is already being priced into futures.

Treasury yields fall as investors move to safety  BONDS

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds — the interest rate the government pays when it borrows money for a decade — fell to 4.21% on Friday from 4.38% the prior week. When investors are nervous, they sell stocks and buy Treasuries, which are considered among the safest assets in the world. Rising demand for Treasuries pushes prices up and yields down. The move into bonds on Friday tells us that institutional investors were reducing risk before the weekend — not waiting to see what would happen.

Asia markets open sharply lower on Monday  GLOBAL

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.3% at its Monday open, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 3.0% — two of the largest stock markets in Asia. Both indexes are heavily weighted toward technology and export-driven manufacturers that face direct exposure to the tariff escalation. Asia opens roughly 12 hours ahead of the U.S. market, so its Monday reaction is often the first real-time signal of how global investors are processing weekend news. A 2–3% open in Asia almost always translates to pressure at the U.S. open — though U.S. futures often recover partially between Asia's open and 9:30 AM ET.

The Takeaway

Last week's trades split cleanly into two camps. One group — Coatue Management reducing Taiwan Semiconductor, Tiger Global exiting Apple, and the Treasury market rotating defensively — was already positioned for a bad weekend. The other camp — Warren Buffett adding to Occidental, Jensen Huang buying Nvidia, and Bill Ackman entering Alphabet — was betting that the selloff is creating durable entry points, not permanent damage. Monday's open will tell us which camp is right first. The specific question the market will answer before noon: does the White House's semiconductor tariff include any carve-outs for the data center supply chain? If it does, Nvidia holds. If it doesn't, Friday's decline had further to go.

— Nate Fowler

Who Bought · Who Sold · Who’s Hedging