The
Wall Street bank said retail investors net bought mainly
exchanged traded funds (ETF), although individuals also added
shares across sectors except for communications, consumer
staples and utilities.
Still, retail appetite year-to-date through July 7 was down 60%
when compared to the first six months of the years between 2016
and 2022. Individuals net bought $80 billion in equities so far
this year.
Contrary to retail, U.S.-based long/short hedge funds reduced
their exposure to global equities last week. Their so-called
gross leverage, which adds up hedge funds' bets on the rise and
fall of shares, fell 2% compared to the previous week, according
to Morgan Stanley.
Hedge funds mostly cut their long exposure to the pharmaceutical
sector and to Asia ex-Japan, while they added some
consumer-related sectors and Japanese shares to their portfolio,
the bank added.
The bank tracks hedge funds it has as clients of its prime
brokerage to show how they positioned during the week. Morgan
Stanley estimated U.S. long/short hedge funds went down roughly
1% last week through Thursday.
Last week, the S&P 500 fell 1.2%, the Dow Jones went down 2% and
the Nasdaq fell 0.9%.
(Reporting by Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Chris
Reese)
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