Global investors dump holdings of US stocks at record pace, BofA survey says

LONDON (Reuters) – Global investors have slashed their holdings of U.S. stocks by a record amount in the past two months, and think a trade war that triggers global recession is the biggest risk for markets, 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.

The trend looks set to continue, as a record number of respondents also said they intended to cut allocations to U.S. equities.

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.