It’s all gloomy regardless of what US President Donald Trump does. That’s the sentiment echoed by billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones, who is taking issue with the aggressive tariffs aimed at settling the trade deficit between the US and its trading partners. While the US markets have pulled back by up to 8% in response to the tariff war woes, Jones believes the dust is unlikely to settle anytime soon.
The hedge fund manager insists stocks are bound to hit new lows even on Trump toning down on aggressive tariffs on China. That’s because macroeconomic conditions continue to deteriorate.
“For me, it’s pretty clear. You have Trump who’s locked in on tariffs. You have the Fed who’s locked in on not cutting rates. That’s not good for the stock market,” Jones said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We’ll probably go down to new lows, even when Trump dials back China to 50%.”
The remarks come on Trump slapping 145% tariffs on imported Chinese goods as one of the ways of getting Beijing into the negotiation table. While the administration has hinted at the possibility of dialing it back to about 50% or 40%, Jones insists it will be too little too late.
“He’ll dial it back to 50% or 40%, whatever. Even when he does that ... it’d be the largest tax increases since the ’60s,” Jones said. “So you can kind of take 2%, 3% off growth.”
The tariff war has put the US central bank in a tight spot as it tries to balance interest rates amid a tariff war likely to spark inflation. The US Federal Reserve has had to keep its key overnight lending rate steady since December, on growing concerns that the trade war will trigger a significant spike in inflation. Fed chair Jerome Powell, insisting that policymakers wait for greater clarity, has not only rattled the markets but also triggered a backlash from the US president.
Amid the headwinds and uncertainties, Jones has positioned his portfolio to benefit from any bounce back once the selloff dust settles. Jones, who shot to fame on profiting from the 1987 market crash, has etched his name on Wall Street owing to his extraordinary ability to foresee market shifts and try to capitalize on them.
Jones has constantly reiterated the need to concentrate on risk management and protecting current investments during heightened market volatility. Instead of daydreaming about possible gains, he advises investors to spend 90% of their time considering the cash at risk in their investments.
“People need to focus on the money that they have at risk and how much capital is at risk in any single investment they have. If everyone spent 90% of their time on that, not 90% of the time on pie-in-the-sky ideas of how much money they're going to make, then they would be incredibly successful investors,” Jones said.
Tudor Investment Corporation, founded in 1980, is the investment firm that the hedge fund manager uses to pursue opportunities in the equity markets while leveraging solid risk management strategies. The firm has generated an average return of 19% over the years, affirming a solid stock-picking strategy. With that, let's take a look at the firm's top stock picks with huge upside potential.
Our Methodology
We combed Tudor Investment Corporation Q4 2024 13F filings to identify Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones' 10 Stocks Picks with Huge Upside Potential. We then settled on stocks with more than 30% upside potential based on analysts ratings and analyzed why the stocks stand out, as solid value investments well poised to generate significant long term value. Finally, we ranked the stocks in ascending order based on the stocks upside potential (as of May 7). We have also mentioned the broader hedge fund sentiment for these stocks, as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
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Tudor Investment Corporation Equity Stake: $22.02 Million
Stock Upside Potential as of May 7: 32.09%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 97
Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT) is a sports betting and gaming company that provides sportsbooks and iGaming products, such as blackjack, roulette, slot machines, poker, rummy, and lottery products. Its most popular property is FanDuel, having affirmed its status as the most popular online sports betting site.
The online sports betting and iGaming operator has seen its sentiments receive a boost on delivering impressive first-quarter 2025 results, buoyed by strong performance in the US. Revenue in the quarter was up 8% year-over-year to $3.66 billion. Adjusted EBITDA increased 20% to $616 million as net income reached $335 million, a growth of 289% year-over-year. The better-than-expected results came on Flutter Entertainment plc’s (NYSE:FLUT) US business, recording an 18% revenue increase to $1.66 billion. Average monthly players also increased 8% to $14.88 million, affirming Flutter Entertainment's growing user base and engagement.
To accelerate growth in the year, Flutter Entertainment focuses on organic growth while leveraging mergers and acquisitions to enhance its competitive edge. While the US market is the key growth driver, Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT) is also gaining market share in Europe as more betting in the region shifts online.
Overall FLUT ranks 9th on our list of Paul Tudor Jones' stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of FLUT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than FLUT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
