{"id":30708,"date":"2023-05-02T10:28:58","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T10:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/hedge-funds-bet-consumers\/"},"modified":"2023-05-02T10:31:03","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T10:31:03","slug":"hedge-funds-bet-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/hedge-funds-bet-consumers\/","title":{"rendered":"Hedge funds bet consumers will rein in U.S. spending &#8211; Goldman Sachs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Nell Mackenzie<\/p>\n<p>LONDON (Reuters) &#8211;     Global hedge funds&#8217; bearish positions reached year highs in April, largely aimed at companies selling non-essential consumer products, in a bet that harsher economic times will curtail excess spending, said a Goldman Sachs note on Monday.  <\/p>\n<p>Hedge funds trading the stocks of U.S. consumer discretionary companies offering flat-screen TVs and family vacations saw the largest notional net selling since October 2022, the note, released on Monday and seen by Reuters, said.<\/p>\n<p>Bets on the stock prices of these companies falling outpaced bullish positions almost two-to-one, the note added. <\/p>\n<p>Automobiles, software, hotels, restaurants and leisure, specialty retail, interactive media and entertainment were among the most net sold U.S. industries, said the note.     <\/p>\n<p>Single U.S. company names drew focus and short selling in North America reached a year high, Goldman said.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. consumer spending plateaued in March, a sign that Americans may have become more averse to higher prices, data released last week showed. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The consumer will eventually hit a wall due to the toxic mix of high inflation, higher rates and high energy prices,&#8221; said Patrick Ghali, managing partner of hedge fund advisory firm Sussex Partners. <\/p>\n<p>Eventually savings will dry up and consumers will have to make harsh choices. Spending might slow more quickly than anticipated so hedge fund positioning for this made sense, he said.\u00a0     <\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>GRAPHIC: US personal consumption (https:\/\/fingfx.thomsonreuters.com\/gfx\/mkt\/klvygjdylvg\/US%20personal%20consumption%20-Stephen%20Culp.PNG)<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>In Europe, stocks saw net buying by hedge funds for a fourth straight month in April, driven mainly by hedge funds buying to exit short positions in macro economic sectors, the Goldman Sachs note said. A short position reflects investors betting on future weakness in an asset price.<\/p>\n<p>Goldman added that developed markets in Asia, especially Japan, saw net buying from hedge funds. <\/p>\n<p>Japanese stocks saw net buying by hedge funds for a fourth straight month and the largest level of notional net buying in two years, the note said. <\/p>\n<p>Global hedge funds that focus on buying and selling stocks posted a 0.58% increase in asset weighted returns, said the note. These failed to outperform MSCI&#8217;s World Stock Index, which rose 1.36% in April. <\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p> (Reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Graphics by Stephen Culp; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/hedge-funds-bet-consumers\/traders-work-on-the-floor-of-the-new-york-stock\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ410CH-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ410CH-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nell Mackenzie LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; Global hedge funds&#8217; bearish positions reached year highs in April, largely aimed at companies selling non-essential consumer products, in a bet that harsher economic times will curtail excess spending, said a Goldman Sachs note on Monday. Hedge funds trading the stocks of U.S. consumer discretionary companies offering flat-screen TVs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":30709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ410CH-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30710,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30708\/revisions\/30710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}