Michael Burry's Scion dumps Alphabet and Amazon, buys shares of gold ETF

By Joseph Adinolfi

Michael Burry's Scion Asset Management dumped positions in Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. during the first quarter while buying shares of an exchange-traded fund that invests in physical gold, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released Wednesday.

Burry rose to fame after his bet against mortgage bonds in the run-up to the global financial crisis was chronicled in "The Big Short."

In addition to selling his stakes in Alphabet (GOOGL) (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN), Burry also sold the entirety of his positions in Big Lots Inc. (BIG), Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG), MGM Resorts International (MGM), Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Warner Bros Discovery Inc. (WBD)

On top of buying shares of the Sprott Physical Gold Trust PHYS, Burry also increased his holdings of Chinese companies including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) and JD.com Inc. (JD) Both companies trade in the U.S. as American Depository Receipts, or ADRs.

Chinese stocks have rallied in 2024, reversing some of their losses from the past few years. The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF KWEB, which owns ADR tied to both Alibaba and JD.com, is up more than 16% since the start of the year through Wednesday's close, according to FactSet data.

Gold prices have marched to record highs in 2024 as geopolitical worries and concerns about stubborn inflation have drawn traders to the yellow metal. Gold's advance has helped helped push shares of the Sprott ETF up 16% this year, to $18.50 a share as of Wednesday's close.

The SEC filing released on Wednesday offers a snapshot of Burry's portfolio as of March 31. It doesn't guarantee that Burry continues to hold these stocks, and offers no indication about when, exactly, changes to his portfolio were made.

The filing also doesn't offer any information about his portfolio other than his holdings of U.S. stocks and options.

-Joseph Adinolfi

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05-15-24 1713ET

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