Fund managers are the most bullish on stocks since January 2022, according to Bank of America's Monthly Fund Manager Survey for April, issued on April 16.
Cash levels in April fell to 4.2% of assets under management from 4.4% a month prior, while investors unloaded bonds at a pace not seen since July 2003. Indeed, investors reported they were a net 14% underweight in bonds, a 20-percentage-point month-over-month decline. Overall, investors’ bond allocation is now at its lowest level since November 2022.
Meanwhile, investors scurried to buy stocks — increasing their allocation to equities by six percentage points to net 34% overweight position — the largest such overweight since January 2022.
Investors also scrambled to buy commodities in April, increasing their allocation to this asset class by 20 percentage points over March, the largest monthly increase on record. As a result, investors are now net 11% overweight commodities, the first overweight position in five months.
On a macro level, some 78% of investors think a global recession is "unlikely" to occur within the next 12 months, up from 65% of investors in March, and the highest such level of optimism since February 2022.
In addition, 46% of surveyed investors expect the Federal Reserve to enact two interest rate cuts this year, while 27% expect three cuts and 3% expect four cuts.
The survey comprised 224 asset managers and others across the globe with $638 billion in total assets under management.
