Global hedge funds shine in June, driven by AI – HFR

NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) – Global hedge funds posted gains of 2.2% in June, as artificial intelligence-related stocks surged and the banking crisis eased, data provider HFR said on Monday.

In the first half of the year, hedge funds added 3.45% to their investors.

“Hedge funds surged in June, led by growth equity exposures and, specifically, artificial intelligence. While gains were driven by these dynamic exposures, industry performance was strong across-the-board,” said Kenneth J. Heinz, president of HFR.

Equity hedge funds, which bet stocks will fall or rise, posted the best performance among all four categories tracked by HFR, both in June and in the year, with gains of 2.94% and 5.55%, respectively.

Still, equity hedge funds lagged the S&P 500 index, which soared 16.9% in the first half of 2023.

Macro hedge funds ended June down 0.47% in the year, as they were able to erase some losses earlier in the year last month, up 1.47%. Hedge funds that bet on economic trends had a challenging beginning of the year as they were hard hit by the banking crisis in March.

Event-driven hedge funds, which include shareholder activism and those betting on M&As, rose 2.99% in the first half of the year and 2.78% in June.

Relative value strategies, which trade asset price dispersion, ended June up 2.66% in the year and 0.9% in the month.

(Reporting by Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Chris Reese and Stephen Coates).