INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
LONDON: Global investors have the most pessimistic outlook on the world economy since the 2008 financial crisis, according to Bank of
America Merrill Lynch's monthly survey, which also showed a sharp fall in United States equity allocations.
The survey, released on
Tuesday was conducted Oct
5 to 11 and canvassed investors managing $646 billion
It showed investors remained overweight equities overall, though the 22 percent overweight was just marginally off the recent record low of
19 percent.
But in a sign of caution, they held cash at 5.1 percent -- a net 36 percent overweight -- and well above than the 4.5 percent
10-year average.
The poll showed that a net 38 percent of respondents expected the global economy to slow, the worst outlook on global
growth since November 2008
A net 35 percent of participants identified trade war as the biggest risk.
Investors were also gloomy on corporate earnings, with a fifth of
respondents expecting global profits to deteriorate in the coming year, BAML said, noting that in January a net 39 percent of investors had
predicted an improvement.
Focusing investors' minds is the rise in U.S, Treasury yields -- 10-year yields hit seven-year highs recently --
expectations of more policy tightening and signs the United States economy and company earnings could slow from the sugar-rush provided by
tax cuts.
All those fears were among factors which triggered a sudden selloff on Wall Street last week, putting the SP500 on track for its
biggest monthly loss since mid-2015.
There are also concerns about the overwhelming popularity of big tech, with the BAML poll showing
United States and Chinese tech stocks remained the "most crowded" trade for the ninth consecutive month.
The poll showed a dramatic 17
percentage-point drop in United States equity allocations to a net 4 percent overweight, with Japan ousting the United States as investors'
most favoured market with an 18 percent overweight.
The decline in European equity holdings too continued, falling six percentage points in
October to the lowest since December 2016.
Investors remain reluctant to give up on higher-risk assets however, holding on to an overall
underweight position on bonds.
"Investors are bearish on global growth but not bearish enough to signal anything but a short-term bounce in
risk assets," BAML chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett said.
The poll found also that the yield level at which investors would
rotate from equities to bonds was seen at 3.7 percent on 10-year United States Treasuries -- the highest since March when the question was
first asked.
Yields are currently around 3.17 percent, almost 10 bps off recent highs.
In an interesting turnaround, a net 51 percent of
poll participants named the dollar as overvalued, "notably against emerging market currencies which are seen as never having been more
undervalued in survey history," BAML said.
