Big Short in Stocks Is Almost Over After $300 Billion Unwind

(Bloomberg) -- Money managers have cut $300 billion of bearish bets and are now positioned more in line with historic norms — robbing the market of pent-up demand just as the Federal Reserve warns its inflation-fighting battle is far from over.

The shift in positioning has taken a broad array of investors from underweight to holding equities closer to the average of the past decade. Investors are now the closest to neutral positioning than they have been since the second quarter of last year, when the Fed began ramping up interest rates, according to data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG.

That sentiment shift, as the S&P 500 surged from its bear-market low in mid-October, suggests stocks may have trouble pushing higher unless the funds turn outright bullish. So far — aside from some systematic funds that have been forced to raise exposure — most managers remain wary of another market selloff given hawkish central bankers risk stoking a recession. A chorus of monetary officials warned Wednesday that they are far from done with policy tightening, a day after Chair Jerome Powell again cheered signs of disinflation.

“Equity investors have an innate ability to pick and choose strands from the macro narrative which support their Pavlovian instincts,” said James Athey, investment director at Edinburgh-based abrdn. “We are now entertaining the notion of ‘no landing’ a somewhat pie-in-the-sky belief in the ability for the economy to disinflate without negative growth consequences.”

The risk-on climate that’s propelling the most speculative assets and putting the Nasdaq 100 on the verge of a bull market has proved hard to resist in recent weeks. Powell did little to spoil the good mood this week, though stocks slumped Wednesday.

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