Overall hedge fund net positioning according to Goldman has dropped to levels we haven’t seen outside of liberation day in the past five years. While US Long/Short Fund gross leverage is at the 56th percentile one-year (and the 90th five-year percentile), US net leverage saw “the largest weekly decline since Apr ’25 (week of Liberation Day) and the 4th largest weekly decline in the past five years to 43.7%” which is the 0 percentile for both the one and five-year lookbacks. The US Fundamental long/short ratio (MV) remained at the 0 percentile one-year (and now also five-year). So hedge funds decreased longs and increased shorts last week, likely in a move to preserve what has been a good year, but leaving a huge amount of room for them to eventually reengage with the market.

As always, a nice weekly piece from @EricSoda. No surprises yet, he remains bullish (and in fairness he's called things pretty well recently with a 2025 YE SPX target of 6,900 (less than 1% off) and a 2026 SPX target of 7,900 (we're ~2% away) neither of which he touched mid-year (unlike most analysts). While acknowledging a number of bearish indicators, he notes (via @TheChartReport) that investors aren't acting bearish with high beta stocks closing at an all-time high relative to low beta and Staples breaking to an all-time low vs the SPX.