Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller reveals new bet against the S&P 500 — and piled into energy stocks last quarter

• Stanley Druckenmiller's family office revealed a new wager against the S&P 500 index this week.
• Duquesne Family Office purchased 2,396 put contracts of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF.

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller placed a bet against the S&P 500 and loaded up on energy stocks last quarter, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed this week.

Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office bought 2,396 put contracts of the S&P 500's Standard & Poor's Depository Receipts (SPDR) exchange-traded fund, which tracks the benchmark S&P 500 index.

The investor may have made the wager because he expects the US stock market to slump further, fueled by mounting fears of soaring inflation and slower economic growth.

The S&P 500 has dropped about 14% so far in the second quarter. It's now close to a bear market, having fallen nearly 20% from record highs in January. It slid 4% on Wednesday, suffering its biggest one-day loss since the height of the pandemic.

Druckenmiller also snapped up a bunch of energy and commodity stocks last quarter. Duquesne boosted its stake in Chevron to about 965,000 shares, worth $157 million as of March 31. It also added the likes of Coterra Energy, Pioneer Natural Resources, Teck Resources, Cenovus Energy, and Antero Resources to its portfolio.

Energy stocks have soared this year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in economic sanctions and disrupted supply chains that were already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. Two of the largest US oil companies, Exxon and Chevron, reported soaring profits in the first quarter as a result of higher energy prices.

Other high-profile investors have piled into energy stocks recently. For example, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway more than quadrupled its stake in Chevron last quarter, and plowed north of $7 billion into Occidental Petroleum stock in a matter of weeks.

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