Stocks May Be Up, But Fund Managers Are Still Bearish

January brought a dramatic rally in stocks and other asset classes following a tumultuous December. However, fund managers have remained positionally bearish despite the broad-based rally. This bearish trend has continued into February — even though it’s looking like we managed to avoid the steep selloff witnessed last year at this time.

Sentiment remains bearish despite rally

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts released their February Global Fund Manager Survey this week. The survey results suggest that investor sentiment remains low even though global stock prices have climbed 7% and commodity prices are up 5% since the January survey. Despite those rallies, the firm found in February that global allocations to stocks plunged 12 percentage points