Market mood bearish, but less so than in April's tariff shock, BofA survey finds

Investor sentiment turned bearish in March due to the war in Iran and concern over private credit, BofA's monthly fund manager survey found, but sentiment remains well above the levels during April 2025's tariff turmoil.

Just 7% of those surveyed expect a stronger global economy, down from 39% a month earlier, while a net 45% expect higher global CPI in the next 12 months, up from 9%.

However, while that caused BofA's broadest measure of investor sentiment to fall sharply to 5.6 from 8.2, this is still well above April 2025's low of 1.8.