BoA-Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey
BoA-Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey
August FMS a feast for contrarian, tactical bears. Headline data reveals strongest market sentiment in two years.
Big turnaround from apocalyptic bearishness of March. But underlying data shows lack of conviction. Four out of five investors predict a “below trend" recovery and neither regional nor sector positions are extreme. The optimism is skin-deep.
Consensus (75%) expects some sort of global recovery. Few expect a “double-dip". This means “weaker-than-expected" data in coming months would be negative for equities.
Next set of Chinese and US data is now crucial for September direction. China’s growth expectations dipped again (to 49%) in the August FMS.
Sector preferences
Technology (28%) is the most favored sector everywhere. Big monthly jump (-11% to 11%) in exposure to industrials.
Defensives (telco, staples, pharma) cut back to neutral, while utilities (-15%) most detested global sector. The underweight in bank stocks narrowed (to -10%), but investors remain UW the credit plays.
Contrarian longs: Japan, US, Asia utilities, US & UK banks, UK & Eurozone real estate, Asia telco, EM materials. Contrarian shorts: US, Eurozone, Japan, Asia tech, EM consumer discretionary, Asia and Japan banks, Russia.
Outlook
Short-term pullbacks often coincide with a bullish FMS. That’s happening. But August optimism feels grudging and only skin-deep to us.
We remain cyclical equity bulls and buyers of dips. August FMS resembles June 2003 FMS, when big reduction in cash balances (4.9% to 3.9%) and increase in equity allocation (3% to 22%) caused a nascent cyclical bull market to pause for breath. The bull market resumed a few months later.
Click here for the survey report
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