Investor sentiment toward stocks has surged to a three-year high, while sentiment toward bonds has dropped to a three-year low, according to recent surveys.
Investors see economic recovery and increased profits boosting stocks globally, while the exploding U.S. debt burden depresses Treasury bonds.
Bloomberg’s sentiment reading for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has climbed to 54.37, the highest since Bloomberg began the survey in 2007.
On the bond side, negative sentiment on Treasury bonds has risen to 76.65, also the highest mark since the survey started.
As for stocks, “the market is clearly in an upside trend,” Luis Benguerel, a trader at Interbrokers Espanola in Barcelona, told Bloomberg.
“As long as we keep getting these macro figures and companies do as good as analysts expect them to do, that’s enough to keep this trend going.”
But as for Treasuries, “The market will have to absorb a significantly greater amount of supply as the Fed steps away,” Michael Pond, a bond strategist for Barclays in New York, told Bloomberg.
“We do expect yields to go higher. Bearishness across all sovereign issuers may be warranted.”
One big-time investor who counts himself a stock bull is Bill Miller of Legg Mason.
He looks for U.S. stocks to gain another 20 percent thanks to strong economic growth.
“I expect to see a rapid restocking by U.S. companies that will stimulate a sharp rise in economic growth over several quarters," he told the Financial Times.
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