It’s no longer a “bear market rally”: BofA survey

LONDON (Reuters) – Investors are “most bullish” on financial markets since February, when world stocks hit a record high, a Bank of America fund manager survey showed.

A net 46% of investors surveyed by BofA said “it’s a bull market”, up from 40% the previous month. A secular bull market is one where the prevailing trend is for higher prices, with short corrections interrupting it.

World stocks have bounced back by a whopping 51%, adding $24 trillion in value, in five months as investors bet that economic activity would rebound rapidly after record plunges.

Of the 181 survey participants, who manage half-a-trillion dollars in assets, a net 79% expect a stronger economy, the strongest reading since December 2009.

But evidence of a new wave coronavirus infections in some countries has led to some caution and the survey showed that a pandemic “second wave” was still seen as the biggest risk to markets for the fifth straight month.

Other findings from the survey included that long U.S. tech and growth stocks were the “most crowded” trade for the fourth month running as the pandemic transformed the way people work, study and shop, making tech stocks the ultimate beneficiaries.

As global equities near record highs, strategists told Reuters that the quickfire bear-to-bull switch was not only justified but deserves to go further.