By Carolina Mandl
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global hedge funds bought more stocks than they sold for the second consecutive week, mainly in the so-called cyclical sectors, such as energy, industrials and materials, amid an “almost no panic” market, according to a Goldman Sachs report.
The bank, which uses data from its prime brokerage clients to provide a snapshot of the market, said hedge funds were net buyers in 10 of the 11 U.S. sectors, mostly betting shares in cyclicals will rise, amid a stock rally.
Last week, cyclicals attracted the most net buying, as measured in financial volume, since September 2021, Goldman Sachs added.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rallied last week, up 1.37% and 2.31%, respectively. A mega-cap rally pushed the S&P 500 above 5,000 for the first time.
In some parts of the market, Goldman Sachs there is a lot of optimism, such as bullish options in big tech names. “The equity options market is pricing almost no panic, and with growth remaining more resilient than expected, the risk of re-acceleration and a momentum unwind is increasing,” it said in the report.
(Reporting by Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)