Hedge funds are getting back to buying global equities, shrugging off broader market volatility to gobble up tech stocks at the fastest pace in two months, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk.
New long positions outpaced short sales last week while single stocks saw “the largest notional buying in over a year,” the traders wrote in a note, marking a bullish turn in sentiment after hedge funds had been selling for the prior three weeks.
The funds were loading up on stocks even as investors retreated to havens on the prospect of a delay in Federal Reserve rate cuts and rising geopolitical risks, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 recording its worst week since November 2022.
Trend-following commodity trading advisers and other risk-adjusted investors unwound some of their positions, with CTAs decreasing their exposure to the S&P 500 to $34.5 billion, from a historical maximum long of $48.2 billion, the Goldman traders said.
Still, Goldman said its baseline forecast for the economy should support risk assets even as slower monetary easing, global turmoil and high valuations would “could keep the investing environment choppy,” according to the note.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.