The Blue Whale Growth fund, backed by the billionaire Peter Hargreaves, has sold its entire stake in Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corporation amid fears of a global economic slowdown.
What Happened: The decision to exit Meta and Microsoft was announced by the fund’s manager, Stephen Yiu, following U.S. President Donald Trump‘s announcement of broad tariffs on April 2, reported the Financial Times.
Yiu expressed concerns that these tariffs could potentially trigger a global economic slowdown, which would negatively impact Meta’s digital advertising business. He stated, “When you have a global business in digital advertising and a global slowdown and economic uncertainty, then it does impact the top line [revenues].”
The Blue Whale Growth fund, managing £1.1 billion ($1.46 billion), has massive holdings in technology stocks, accounting for nearly 40% of the portfolio. Meta’s holding represented about 3% of this.
Yiu also revealed that the fund has been buying shares of U.S. chip designer Nvidia Corporation, raising the stock’s share of the overall fund from 7% at the end of last year to 10%, in order to take advantage of a lower share price.
Why It Matters: The Blue Whale Growth fund, started in 2017 by Hargreaves, co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, holds around £200 million ($265.31 million) from his family. Since Trump’s tariff announcement, Hargreaves Lansdown has reported that its customers have continued to be net buyers of the Magnificent Seven stocks, which represent nearly a third of the S&P 500 by market capitalization.
In early April, UK retail investment platforms Interactive Investor and AJ Bell experienced a surge in trading volumes. Interactive Investor reached its highest-ever trading volumes on April 7, with Nvidia and Amazon being popular picks. AJ Bell noted an increase in purchases of the Polar Capital Technology Trust, which includes tech giants like Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, highlighting growing interest in tech stocks.
After President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2, the U.S. technology sector has been particularly impacted. Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund dropped 16.86% year-to-date, while VanEck Semiconductor ETF lost 21.5% during the same period.
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