Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald – which has about $3.53 billion in holdings – has been named as the co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team. Lutnick will lead the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Top Holdings Of Lutnick's Firm: According to Cantor Fitzgerald's third-quarter 13F filings, top holdings of the firm include $SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$ , $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ , $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ , $GCM Grosvenor (GCMG.US)$ , and $Rumble (RUM.US)$ .
In the September quarter, Lutnick's financial services firm purchased about 1.17 million shares of Tesla with 1.74 million put options in Q3. It bumped up its call options by 4,967% to 152,000 shares from the quarter-ended in July. The total value of the fund's exposure to Tesla stood at $804 million in Q3.
Cantor Fitzgerald also increased its position in Nvidia by 7,015%, compared to the second quarter, with a total holding of 3.56 million shares in Q3. It increased Nvidia puts in Q3 by 1,268% to 5.46 million shares and Nvidia call options by 3,213% to 778,600 shares. The total exposure to Nvidia in value terms stood at $1.192 billion.
The fund had 1.23 million of put options and 600,000 call options on SPDR S&P 500 ETF TR representing a total value of $1.05 billion in Q3. GCM Grosvenor and Rumble reflected 2.1% and 1.2% of the fund's total holdings, valued at $73.03 million and $42.04 million, respectively.
Why It Matters: Lutnick was also considered as a top pick for the Secretary of Treasury along with Scott Bessent. Tesla CEO and Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-lead Elon Musk rallied for Lutnick in a post on his social media platform, X, calling on others to weigh in on the appointment.
Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback.
My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change.
Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change...— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2024
However, Bessent was appointed the Treasury Secretary. According to betting markets, Bessent was a frontrunner with an 82% probability of securing the nomination.
The third-quarter 13F filing from Bessent's Key Square Group fund shows that they have liquidated all their holding in the September quarter.
In the second quarter, the fund had a highly concentrated portfolio, with equal investments in two banking-focused ETFs: the $Spdr Series Trust S&P Regional Bkg Etf (KRE.US)$ and the $Spdr S&P Bank Etf (KBE.US)$ , each making up 50% of the fund.
