James Brodie
Head of Learning & Development, Flux
Market Awaits Warsh Speech, US Corporate Profits Surge, Citadel Securities Posts Record Q2
Hedge funds make biggest energy buy in 4yrs; US corp profits hit record $4.8T at 14.9% of GDP; Citadel posts record $7.3B Q2 revenue.
Quiet market awaits Fed Chair Warsh’s speech at Jackon Hole today.
Hedge funds bought the most global energy stocks in nearly 4 years last week, marking their 12th weekly purchase over the last 13 weeks. As a result, hedge funds are now the most overweight energy relative to global stocks since June 2024. That is a sharp reversal from February 2026, when they were the most underweight energy since 2021. The only period with materially higher energy exposure relative to global equities was during the 2022 energy bull market.
U.S. corporate profits surged 22.8% YoY in Q2 2026 to a record $4.8T, the largest annual increase since Q4 2021. Excluding the pandemic recovery and the post-2008 Financial Crisis rebound, this was the strongest YoY profit growth in 21 years. Since Q2 2020, corporate profits have climbed $2.7T, or 131%. As a percentage of GDP, corporate profits jumped 1.0 percentage point in Q2 to 14.9%, an all-time high.
Citadel Securities posted a record Q2, with trading revenue reaching $7.3B, more than 3x YoY, and net income rising more than 250% YoY to $3.3B. The firm now handles more than one-third of U.S. retail stock trades, with high-touch equities helping drive the quarter’s results. Citadel Securities was also profitable in July and expects to remain profitable in August.
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