Hedge funds shed risk in tech megacap sell-off, Goldman says
5:31 pm Wednesday, July 17th, 2024
By Carolina Mandl
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global hedge funds have been reducing their exposure to U.S. stocks for five days in a row amid a market-wide pullback in megacap tech-related stocks, Goldman Sachs said in a note on Wednesday.
The value of stocks hedge funds ditched over the last five trading sessions was the biggest since November 2022 and is close to a five-year record, Goldman said, without providing figures.
Hedge funds sold U.S. tech stocks in seven of the last eight trading sessions, it noted.
On Wednesday, the tech sell-off dragged the Nasdaq Composite down 2.77% and the S&P 500 fell 1.39%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.59%.
One of the biggest global providers of equities trading and financing for hedge funds, Goldman Sachs tracks its clients’ portfolios to analyze trends.
The de-risking has been led by the information technology sector, followed by industrial, healthcare, consumer discretionary and communications services, Goldman said.
Morgan Stanley, which also runs a major prime brokerage, said late last week that hedge funds’ exposure to U.S. software stocks had reached “new multi-year lows.”
(Reporting by Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)
