LONDON (Reuters) – Investors dumped cash and bought stocks in the week to Wednesday, according to BofA Global Research, as hopes of interest rate cuts drove equity and bond prices higher.
Investors pulled $31 billion from cash in the week, the first week of outflows in eight weeks, and put $25.3 billion into stocks, BofA said in a report released on Friday, citing EFPR data.
Inflows to equities in the past eight weeks totalled $74 billion, the most in an eight-week period since March 2022, the report said, describing markets as being “all-in on infallible Fed”.
The Federal Reserve held interest rates at its meeting on Wednesday, as expected, but policymakers pencilled in 75 basis points of rate cuts for 2024 as Chair Jerome Powell said the historic tightening of monetary policy was likely over with inflation falling faster than expected.
BofA noted that there have only been five occasions in the past 90 years when the Fed has cut rates when core consumer inflation – now 4% – is higher than the unemployment rate – currently 3.7%. Those were in 1942, during the Second World War, and in four recessions between 1969 and 1981.
The Fed’s policy decision on Wednesday added major impetus to a global rally in stocks and bonds.
MSCI’s world share index is at its highest since April 2022 and set for a weekly gain of 2.7%, its best week since the start of November and on track for its seventh successive weekly gain.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields are down 32 basis points on the week, their biggest such fall in more than a year.
(Reporting by Alun John; Editing by Amanda Cooper, Kirsten Donovan)
