Opalesque – Even ahead of the US debt ceiling agreement, hedge fund managers have been turning increasingly bullish on US equities. With TrimTabs and BarclayHedge reporting 43% of managers expressing bullish sentiments about the S&P 500 (in July), it seems as though hedge funds are holding tight to the belief that the US has turned the corner in its financial crisis. The bullish equities outlook is the highest it has been since December of last year, and was up 15% over the outlooks expressed only one-month prior.
“This reversal is striking,” Sol Waksman , Founder and President of BarclayHedge. “Hedge fund managers were meaningfully bullish on domestic stocks in only one month in the first half of the year. Our research shows that hedge fund sentiment is a decent leading indicator, so the shift could help support stock prices in the near term.”
