Millennium and Point72 see performance gains as hedge funds rebound from impact of Iran conflict

Source: Global Markets Broadcast

According to insiders, Millennium, the fund managed by Izzy Englander, and Point72, the fund under Steve Cohen, have become some of the large hedge funds to record double-digit gains in the first half of this year. The industry is recovering from earlier losses incurred due to the Iran conflict.

Millennium, which manages about $89 billion in assets, had a return of 4.1% in June, bringing its cumulative gain for the first half of the year to 10.5%. Point72’s return for the month through June 25 was 3.4%, taking its year-to-date cumulative return to 14.5%.

Competitor Schonfeld’s flagship fund, with an AUM of approximately $22 billion, reported an 8.4% return for the first half of the year. All three companies declined to comment.

Many so-called “multi-manager hedge funds” (which operate dozens or even hundreds of independent trading teams internally) experienced a particularly challenging first quarter this year, as U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran caused oil prices to surge.

This triggered a violent repricing of market expectations around inflation and interest rates, disrupting multiple funds’ bets in bonds, foreign exchange, and other assets.

According to data provider HFR, hedge funds lost an average of 2.8% in March, immediately after the conflict broke out, but have since rebounded strongly alongside equities.

Many funds have seized investment opportunities in semiconductor stocks, such as AMD, Sandisk, and Intel. These stocks have seen significant gains this year, benefiting from massive capital expenditures by hyperscalers (large-scale cloud service providers).

Additionally, the London-based hedge fund Pharo’s Macro fund achieved a 9.7% return for the first half of the year, while preliminary data showed Man Group’s flagship multi-strategy fund, also listed in London, returned 8.2% in the same period.