LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) – Global investors have slashed their holdings of U.S. stocks by a record amount in the past two months, a trend that is likely to continue given a record number of managers say they plan to keep cutting their exposure, BofA Global Research said on Tuesday.
Respondents to BofA’s monthly survey of fund managers were a net 36% underweight U.S. equities, the most in nearly two years, a number that has plunged by 53 percentage points since February, the biggest such fall on their records.
A majority think a trade war that triggers global recession is the biggest risk for markets, according to the survey.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff plans have sparked a selloff in U.S. assets, including stocks, the dollar and Treasury bonds. The market rebounded on Monday, but the broad-market S&P 500 index is still down about 8% so far this year.
BofA polled 164 investors with $386 billion of assets under management.
There were further signs of nervousness in the survey, particularly about U.S assets.
A net 42% of investors said they expected a global recession, the most since June 2023 and the fourth-highest level in the past 20 years.
In addition, 73% said they thought the theme of “U.S. exceptionalism” has peaked – the idea has powered markets in recent months – and relatedly 49% said they thought the most crowded trade in markets was now “long gold”, displacing bets on U.S. tech giants for the first time in 24 months.
A net 61% expect the U.S. dollar to depreciate over the next 12 months, the most since May 2006. The currency has tumbled sharply against most others in the past few weeks, with the euro, Japanese yen and Swiss franc all gaining sharply.
(Reporting by Alun John; Editing by Amanda Cooper and Hugh Lawson)
