Paulson Maintained SPDR Gold Stake as Dollar Boosted Metal

(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson maintained his holding last quarter in SPDR Gold Shares, before prices of the metal capped the biggest annual gain in seven years.

As of Dec. 31, New York-based Paulson & Co. kept his stake in SPDR Gold, the biggest exchange-traded product backed by bullion, at 4.36 million shares for a fifth straight quarter. Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, added to its stake in the ETF, according to a filing on Tuesday.

Gold benefited last year as a weaker dollar and geopolitical angst helped boost demand for the metal as a store of value. Even with the prospect of higher interest rates clouding the outlook, some investors are betting gold will rally further this year amid economic uncertainty. On Monday, Dalio said risks of a recession in the next 18 to 24 months are rising.

On Wednesday, gold futures posted the biggest gain in almost 11 months as an unexpected decline in U.S. retail sales clouded the economic-growth outlook, boosting demand for the metal as a store of value.

Filings released this month do not include hedge funds’ current position, which may have changed since the end of the quarter. Paulson uses the SPDR ETF to back his funds’ gold share classes, which offer holdings denominated in bullion for investors interested in decoupling their assets from the value of the dollar.

Money managers who oversee more than $100 million in the U.S. must file a Form 13F within 45 days of each quarter’s end to list those stocks as well as options and convertible bonds. The filings don’t show non-U.S. securities, holdings that aren’t publicly traded, or cash.

To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in New York at ljavier@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Joe Richter

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