LONDON (Reuters) - Hedge funds started 2025 buoyed by choppier markets driven by uncertainty on new U.S. President Donald Trump's policies and a tumble in tech-darling Nvidia ( NVDA ) as Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek emerged, sources told Reuters.

A global tech rout at the start of last week was followed by volatility ahead of Trump's weekend announcement of sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, kicking off a trade war that could hurt economic growth internationally.

On Monday, Trump delayed tariffs on Canada and Mexico by one month, fueling wild swings in currency, bond and share markets.

Despite the turmoil, stock picking hedge funds which take bets based on company fundamentals recorded an average 2.6% return, their best month since February 2024, given a broader market rally, a Goldman Sachs ( GS ) prime brokerage note sent to clients on Tuesday showed.

Systematic equity funds, meanwhile, returned 2.71% on average, the note also showed.

Stock markets in the United States and Europe ended January near record highs, as did MSCI's World Stock Index.

Citadel's equity fund posted a 2.7% return in January, while its flagship Wellington fund rose 1.4%, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, declining to be identified because the information was private.

Business Insider reported the Wellington result on Monday.

All Citadel's five investment strategies posted positive performances last month, the source added.

Founded by investor Ken Griffin, Citadel had $65 billion in assets under management as of Jan 1.

Billionaire investor Cliff Asness's AQR Capital Management's systematic stock fund - the Delphi Long-Short Equity strategy - returned a net 3.5% in January, said another source close to the matter. It benefited from trades in developed equity markets and by picking less risky stocks, the source added.

The $2.5 billion stock strategy is part of the $123 billion hedge fund.

Winton's multi-strategy quantitative fund, which trades many different asset classes systematically, finished January up 0.3%, another source said.

Fund name Jan % net return

Citadel Tactical 2.7

Citadel Equities 2.7

Citadel Global Fixed Income 1.9

AQR Apex Strategy 2.5

AQR Delphi L/S Equity 3.5

Winton Multi-Strategy 0.3

Transtrend Diversified 0.9

Citadel Wellington 1.4