Two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday said they remained undecided about voting to confirm Todd Blanche for U.S. attorney general, endangering President Donald Trump‘s nominee to be the nation’s top law enforcement official.

“I am still considering it,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told MS NOW when asked where he stood on Blanche a day after he and other Judiciary panel members questioned the nominee at the first day of his confirmation hearing about a controversial and now-defunct $1.8 billion Department of Justice fund.

“Yeah,” Cornyn said when asked if he was undecided. “Like, I’ve said that several times.”

Cornyn is one of 11 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, which also includes 10 Democrats. Republicans lost a member when Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., died unexpectedly last weekend. Cornyn is set to leave the Senate in early January, having lost his state’s Republican Senate primary in May.

Another Republican on the committee, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said during the second day of hearings on Thursday that he wants Blanche to meet with victims of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before voting on his confirmation.

Blanche later showed up at Capitol Hill and is set to meet with Epstein victims at around 4:30 p.m. ET, MS NOW reported.

It’s another instance of Republicans who are leaving office erecting a road block in Trump’s agenda while raising concerns about some of the president’s actions. Blanche is a former criminal defense lawyer for the president.

Blanche has faced criticism from victims for not meeting with them and for the DOJ — while Blanche was in the No. 2 leadership position — releasing files about Epstein that included identifying information about them.

“I have not made a final decision, but Mr. Blanche said very quickly yesterday that he would meet with the Epstein victims today if it could be arranged,” Tillis said at the hearing, which Blanche didn’t attend.

“I understand the restriction that counsel has to be present. I expect that meeting to occur before I’m willing to vote out of this committee,” Tillis said. “This is a very important part of getting to yes.”

Tillis also said that, like Cornyn, he has concerns about the DOJ fund.

“There are very specific, measurable work products — not a wink and a nod and a handshake — but definable, ratified, executed agreements that will make me feel comfortable that this turkey of an idea is dead,” Tillis said.

If Cornyn or Tillis were to vote against forwarding Blanche’s nomination, along with every Democrat — as is expected — while the…

Ken Griffin’s Citadel posted positive returns across its various hedge fund strategies in the first half of 2026, led by double-digit gains in its tactical trading and equities funds.

The hedge fund firm’s tactical trading fund, which combines discretionary equity investing with quantitative strategies, climbed 14.3% through the end of June after gaining 3.1% in June alone, according to a person familiar Citadel’s returns who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Citadel’s tactical trading fund also weathered a late-June shakeout in quantitative investing. Quantitative investing relies on mathematical models, statistical analysis, machine learning and algorithms to identify investment opportunities, build portfolios and manage risk.

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs’ prime brokerage unit told clients that between June 23 and Monday, systematic long-short strategies had just suffered their worst five-day stretch since December 2023, hurt largely by the unwinding of crowded trades and momentum positions on the short side.

Citadel’s tactical trading strategy avoided that latest sell-off, the person familiar said.

Citadel’s equities fund returned 11.2% in the first half after rising 3.5% in June, while its flagship multistrategy Wellington fund, the firm’s largest, gained 5.7% through the end of June following a 1.8% advance in June, the person said.

The firm’s global fixed income fund rose 1.7% in June, leaving it little changed for the year.

Citadel’s gains came during a volatile first half for financial markets. The S&P 500 climbed 9.6% through June, with the benchmark rebounding to fresh record highs after sliding for five straight weeks in February and March.

Investors first grappled with spikes in oil prices during the Iran conflict, questions over whether massive artificial intelligence spending will be sustained and shifting expectations for Federal Reserve policy, before the rally recently broadened out beyond just the largest technology stocks.

Citadel managed about $69 billion in assets as of June 1.

Citadel declined to comment.

Saba Capital, the activist hedge fund led by Boaz Weinstein, has won a dramatic victory in its long-running campaign against the board of Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust.

Shareholders in Edinburgh Worldwide voted Thursday for Saba Capital’s plan to oust EWIT chair Jonathan Simpson-Dent — and five other board members — and to install three Saba-backed board nominees.

The result gives Weinstein’s firm control of Baillie Gifford-run EWIT, which is focused on cutting-edge public and private technology companies and which offers rare public-market access to SpaceX.

SpaceX, whose private market valuation has soared ahead of an imminent IPO, is EWIT’s largest holding, at about 20% of its portfolio.

It has been a key flashpoint in the protracted boardroom battle, with Weinstein criticizing the board’s decision to sell down a portion of the investment last year.

EWIT generated a staggering 947% return on SpaceX since 2018, on what was then a “speculative” tech bet, Simpson-Dent told CNBC in December.

Weinstein also blasted EWIT’s large discount to net asset value, since narrowed, describing it in a November letter as “unprecedented value destruction.”

Saba now plans to put itself forward as the next manager of EWIT, keeping the fund listed in London but overhauling its strategy.

The trust would pivot to a portfolio largely made up of UK-listed investment trusts with a global remit, while targeting a single-digit discount to NAV through an active share buyback program, Saba said in an open letter to shareholders on Tuesday.

The victory, which was set to be announced at EWIT’s annual general meeting later Thursday after the board conceded it did not have the numbers to defeat Saba’s motion, reflects a decisive shift in the trust’s shareholder base.

Retail and private wealth investors have steadily offloaded their positions throughout the wrangle, making way for U.S. institutional funds to move in. Four U.S. institutional funds, which made up 40% of the share base, voted against the board, according to EWIT.

The transatlantic tussle has seen each side accuse the other of misleading investors, following two earlier unsuccessful attempts by Weinstein to overhaul the board.

Ahead of the vote to oust him, chair Simpson-Dent said EWIT’s individual retail and private wealth shareholders had been “ground down” by “repeated attacks” from the U.S. hedge fund manager, and “replaced by institutions seeking to capture the upside potential in EWIT’s substantial SpaceX exposure.”

“This is a disappointing day for our long-standing shareholders who are set to lose exposure to this exciting mandate focused on next-generation technology, seemingly in favour of Saba’s plan to invest in other U.K. investment trusts,” Simpson-Dent said in a statement ahead of Thursday’s result.

“This should represent a wake-up call for the investment trust sector and its regulators.”

But Saba — which…

Hedge fund manager David Einhorn said he is focusing on capital protection as markets rally on geopolitical optimism, warning that investors may be underestimating potential downside risks.

“It probably won’t surprise anyone that we are again putting capital preservation at the top of our priorities,” Einhorn said in his latest investor letter dated Monday and obtained by CNBC. “With so little downside priced in, we are willing to risk missing out on a possible recovery to position ourselves to play more offense, should one of the downside scenarios materialize.”

U.S. stocks have rebounded violently with the S&P 500 entirely erasing the losses suffered since the Iran war began. The market is building on the recent gains this week even after U.S.-Iran negotiations over the weekend broke down, as investors remained optimistic that a deal between the two countries was still possible.

Greenlight’s funds returned 6.5% in the first quarter, outperforming the S&P 500’s 4.4% decline. Still, Einhorn said the firm has kept relatively low gross and net exposure, reflecting caution about valuations and the broader macro backdrop.

“Even the most cautious are investing with a Sammy Hagar inspired mentality: one foot on the brake and one on the gas,” he said in the letter. “Nobody wants to miss the V- or even the checkmark-shaped recovery.”

As the conflict began, Greenlight was already running with relatively low exposure, citing what it viewed as stretched valuations. Einhorn said Greenlight has made few adjustments, trading around index hedges and adding a long position in October oil futures. That bet has risen only modestly, as markets largely expect any supply disruption to be temporary.

Performance in the quarter was driven by gains in gold, Acadia Healthcare, DHT Holdings and Core Natural Resources, according to the letter. Greenlight also initiated a medium-sized position in Versant Media Group and smaller stakes in Crocs and SLM Corp.

Disclosure: Versant Media is the parent company of CNBC.

BlackRock is applying hedge fund strategies to its exchange-traded fund business.

Jeffrey Rosenberg, the firm’s senior portfolio manager on the systematic fixed income team, has a leading role in the firm’s liquid alternatives ETFs — which use a long-short strategy in ETF wrappers.

He contends the strategy provides valuable diversification amid the recent breakdown in the relationship between stocks and bonds.

“The great old adage around fixed income is ‘my bonds go up when my stocks go down.’ Now, we just went through a period in March with war risk where we clearly saw again on display… that doesn’t hold. And, really saw it in 2022,” Rosenberg told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “This entire post-Covid environment has really challenged that bedrock principle of the 60-40 portfolio that bonds are diversifying.”

According to Rosenberg, client demand for liquid alts ETFs is growing because there’s a desire to diversify your diversifiers.

“We’re bringing the techniques that we’ve developed in the hedge fund side of our business, which primarily center around market neutral, long-short investing,” he added. “That’s the key kind of ‘a-ha moment’ for ETF investors to realize most of what they have exposure to in the ETF ecosystem is some kind of beta exposure.”

Rosenberg is a portfolio manager on two BlackRock liquid alts ETFs: the iShares Systematic Alternatives Active ETF (IALT) and the iShares Managed Futures Active ETF (ISMF). As of April 8, the firm’s website shows IALT is up almost 8% so far this year while the ISMF is up nearly 5%.

“What liquid alternatives bring to the table is the ability to look at other sources of return away from just market directionality,” said Rosenberg.

He highlighted a major challenge investors face on the stock market side.

“Our equity portfolios have been more and more dominated by the big, large cap tech winners,” said Rosenberg. “With that concentration is a loss of diversification and a loss of diversification value on the equity side. So, liquid alternatives can address both of these challenges to portfolio construction.”

Billionaire investor Ken Griffin’s various hedge funds at Citadel generated positive returns in February, navigating a volatile month for markets as macro uncertainty and disruption from artificial intelligence whipsawed asset prices.

The firm’s flagship multistrategy Wellington fund rose 1.9% in February, bringing its year-to-date gain to 2.9%, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is private.

Performance was broad-based across the fund, with all five of Citadel’s core strategies — commodities, equities, fixed income, credit and quantitative — finishing the month in positive territory, the person said

The tactical trading fund advanced 1.5% in February, lifting its year-to-date return to 3.5%, the person said. The equities fund gained 1.0% for the month and is now up 2.2% in 2026. Meanwhile, the global fixed-income fund climbed 1.6% in February, bringing its year-to-date increase to 2.9%, according to the person.

The S&P 500 fell 0.9% in February amid fresh selling pressure in AI-linked and software shares. Fears that automation could erode established business models and trigger mounting layoffs have dampened investor sentiment, raising concerns about potential spillover effects on the broader economy. The market fell under massive pressure again after the U.S. and Israel’s attack on Iran caused oil prices to surge.

The firm declined to comment. Citadel oversaw $66 billion in assets under management as of Feb. 1.

Hedge funds are increasing their short bets against software stocks, contributing to the brutal sell-off in the space so far this year, according to sources at two major funds on Wall Street.

Short-sellers have made a $24 billion windfall so far in software stocks this year as the overall market value in the industry decreased by $1 trillion, according to data from S3 Partners.

The hedge fund sources wouldn’t comment on specific names where big short bets are being increased, but said the focus appears to be on companies that provide basic automation services for clients that can be easily replicated by new AI tools.

Just as hedge funds can crowd into momentum trades to the upside, the investors like to find ‘falling knives’ to the downside, which are seeing indiscriminate selling, where they can increase their short bets. The software space is providing exactly that right now with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF (IGV) down 8% this week, bringing its losses for the year to greater than 21%.

From its all-time high hit in September last year, the ETF is down 30%.

“Hedge fund are all net short software right now,” said Gil Luria, analyst at DA Davidson.

Investors in software increasingly believe the industry may be undergoing a “structural change,” that could lead to more deal activity, including acquisitions by larger companies.

Stocks such as TeraWulf and Asana in the ETF have the biggest total short bets against them currently, according to data from S3 Partners. For TeraWulf, more than 35% of its shares currently available for trading are being sold short. That figure is 25% for Asana. Dropbox and Cipher Mining have 19% and 17% of their trading float sold short respectively, according to S3.

Among the worst performers in the ‘IGV’ ETF so far this year are Intuit, a maker of tax preparation software, and DocuSign, which handles PDFs and other documents, with both down more than 30%.

Some of the biggest stocks in the ETF are also seeing significant hits this year with Microsoft and Oracle down 15% and 21% respectively. Salesforce, Adobe and ServiceNow are all down more than 20%.

On the positive side, there isn’t too much panic on the credit side of the equation yet for the sector, according to one banker, with revolving lines of credit not yet being drawn.

Sentiment in the public market could turn soon, with several software companies slated to report earnings over the coming days, some analysts said.