Fund managers have cut commodities allocations to their lowest levels for three years in a shift that illustrates declining confidence in the outlook for Chinese demand for raw materials and fears that the global economy will enter recession.
Bank of America’s monthly global fund manager survey showed that a net 3 per cent of managers held an “underweight” position in commodities in May after canvassing the views of 247 institutional investors that together oversee $708bn of assets.
Investor sentiment towards commodities has weakened markedly, dropping 17 percentage points over the past two months, the steepest deterioration since August 2015, according to BofA.