JPMorgan cranks up equities “underweight” after market rout

LONDON (Reuters) – JPMorgan’s strategists ratcheted up the investment bank’s “underweight” recommendation on equities on Wednesday and urged switching into cash following the market rout caused by Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse.

In a note titled “There are many carry trades, and they can’t all be bailed out”, JPMorgan analysts said: “We maintain a defensive tilt in our model portfolio, and further increase our UW (underweight) in equities vs. raising our cash allocation.”

“When the (global) economy is slowing down and financing costs are rising, all these implicit or explicit carry trades are pressured to unwind, leading to an end of the cycle. We believe we are in that stage and remain negative on risky asset classes.”

(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)