*

Bridgewater Associates' flagship fund up 14.4% through

June 26

*

Hedge funds show mid-to-high single-digit gains

*

Citadel Wellington gains 8.1%

*

Aspect Capital Diversified fund returns 14.3% in year to

end

June

(Updates July 3 story with details from Brevan Howard and Dymon

Asia Multi-Strategy Investment Fund)

By Carolina Mandl and Nell Mackenzie

NEW YORK/LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - Hedge funds

delivered a mixed first-half performance, with macro funds

Caxton Associates and Brevan Howard struggling to maintain gains

while a couple of multi-strategy and systematic funds went

gangbusters, according to sources and public data.

Andrew Law's Caxton Associates, which places bets on macro

economics, finished last month flat after a yearly performance

to May-end that was up 4%, two sources familiar with the matter

said.

Hedge fund Brevan Howard's Master Fund rose 0.90% in June,

but still ended the first half of 2024 down 1.56% for the year,

a source with knowledge of the data said.

The source did not give a reason for the performance from

the $35 billion hedge fund.

Not all macro strategies struggled. Bridgewater Associates'

flagship fund was up 14.4% this year through June 26, according

to a source.

The HFR Global Hedge Fund index capped the first half with a

meager 2.89% gain. A first sample of hedge fund numbers obtained

by Reuters shows there was some performance diversion in the

industry during a period in which a tech boom-led global markets

to a strong performance.

"There was such a dispersion between returns that the

benchmarks don't always tell you exactly how a certain strategy

is doing," said Lilly Knight, K2 Advisors head of investment

management.

Some multi-strategy hedge funds were able to post

double-digit returns in the first half of the year.

Cinctive Capital was up 11%, as its bets around the impact

of artificial intelligence on energy, utilities and technology

paid off.

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors' flagship fund rose 10.3%,

while the AQR Apex Strategy gained 13.5%. All of them beat

giants Citadel and Millennium Management.

Global fundamental long/short equities hedge funds posted

gains of 7.55% in the first half, according to a Goldman Sachs

prime brokerage note.

Below the surface, the top performers posted almost 15% in

gains, while the underperformers fell 2.22%.

On average, hedge funds struggled to keep pace with the

MSCI's 47-country world stock index, which rose

roughly 11% in the first half.

The S&P 500 soared 15% in the same period, mainly due

to a handful of megacap stocks such as Nvidia ( NVDA ).

"There are hedge funds that own the megacap names that

rallied in the first half of the year, but they're not owned at

anything close to market cap weight," said Craig Bergstrom,

chief investment officer of Corbin Capital.

Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management rose 9.2% in the first

half, a source said.

Aspect Capital's Diversified fund, which trades

systematically, returned 14.27% for the year to end June, said a

source. The hedge fund, which currently oversees $9.1 billion of

assets, made gains in agricultural markets, currencies and

stocks.

Kairos Partners' senior portfolio manager, Mario Unali, said

that going forward, hedge funds will face more challenges after

a strong rally. "Markets are richer than a year ago and

uncertainty is now higher," he said.

Check below some hedge fund performances:

Hedge fund Performance - H1

Schonfeld Strategic 10.3%

Partners

Schonfeld Fundamental 11%

Equities

Citadel Wellington 8.1%

Citadel Tactical Trading 13.7%

Citadel Global Equities 9.9%

Citadel Global Fixed 2.2%

Income

Bridgewater Pure Alpha 14.4%*

Marshall Wace Eureka 10.4%

Marshall Wace Market 14.47%

Neutral TOPS

Marshall Wace Global 8.06%

Opportunities

Winton Multistrategy 10.1%

Winton Diversified Trend 9.5%

Trading

Aspect Capital's 14.27%

Diversified

Millennium Management 6.9%

Coatue Management 9.2%

Cinctive Capital 11%

Caxton Associates 0%

Dymon Asia Multi-Strategy 12.4%

Investment Fund

AQR Apex Strategy 13.5%

AQR Managed Futures Full 14.9%

Volatility Strategy

AQR Delphi Long Short 16.3%

Equity Strategy

Brevan Howard -1.56%

*Through June 26