Pessimism soars among investors

INVESTOR OUTLOOKS have deteriorated to their most pessimistic in a decade, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s December investor survey showed on Tuesday.

A net 53 per cent of investors surveyed, who manage $694bn in assets, said they expect global growth to weaken over the next 12 months, according to the poll.

In a sign of a further darkening in mood, investors piled into bonds, often considered a haven in times of geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

This month’s survey found the biggest-ever one-month rotation into debt on records going back to 2001.

Bond allocation rose 23 percentage points to a net 35 per cent underweight, marking the highest bond allocation since the Brexit vote in June 2016, it showed.

“Investors are close to extreme bearishness,” Michael Hartnett, BAML’s chief investment strategist, said.