# Broadening rally in stocks hits an economic roadblock — retained record

> Retained news record from news:india-et-markets.

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source: [news](https://highsignal.app/data/news) (news:india-et-markets)  published 2026-10-05 15:45 ingested 2026-10-06 02:57

[original source ↗](https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/us-stocks/news/broadening-rally-in-stocks-hits-an-economic-roadblock/articleshow/134711680.cms)

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Bulls are confronting a harsh reality: adding major positioning isn’t worth it right now. The bond selloff is capping the appeal of equities, a strengthening dollar is hampering liquidity, and the threat of Iran war re-escalation has kept US benchmark crude oil prices around $90 a barrel. The deteriorating picture leaves investors, reluctant to cash out more than they have already, wondering what’s next.
After reducing risk during the summer, investors seem to have little appetite to pull back further. Take hedge funds: they spent most of September adding hedges and short positions, rather than cutting their long exposure, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. prime brokerage data.
It’s evidence that investors are far from complacent and are evaluating threats ranging from inflation, rates, oil and the midterms without any panic. They appear willing to maintain fairly concentrated exposure to a narrow number of themes or stocks, especially AI-related trades, while selling anything that may suffer from the crumbling macro-economic backdrop. For BofA’s Hartnett, it’s a “long artificial intelligence” (Nasdaq 100), “short artificial irrelevance” (S&P 500 Equal Weight) approach.
“While a spike in bond yields leaves stocks looking relatively expensive, the continued rise in corporate earnings should see equities add to their gains over the coming months,” said Pictet Asset Management chief strategist Luca Paolini.
Companies in the MSCI World index should deliver earnings growth exceeding 30% this year, Paolini said. He expects price pressures to ease in the coming months, even if oil briefly pushed headline US inflation to almost double the target level.
Until then, the risk is a spike in volatility.
Ranking each index against its own history makes the divergence even starker. MOVE is in the top quarter of all its data since 2000; the VIX, at around 16, is below its long-run median. That rare elevated spread has always resolved in the same way — not with rates vol collapsing to meet equity vol, but with equity vol eventually catching up.
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(What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2025, Share Market on Budget 2025 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)
Subscribe to ET Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.
Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price
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document fetched 2026-10-06 02:57