Managers become bullish on bonds

A sign of the times: Portfolio managers are more bullish about bonds than equities for the first time in years, according to a Russell Investments survey. Specifically, of the 228 investment managers polled, 67% said they were bullish on corporate bonds, and 61% were big on high-yield bonds — the two most popular asset classes with managers at the moment. Only 57% were bullish on large-cap growth equities, which still ranked as the favorite equity category among the managers canvassed by Russell. That’s the first time that managers have said they favored fixed income over stocks in the five years that Russell has conducted its quarterly Investment Manager Outlook survey. Meanwhile, one-third of these portfolio managers said they think the equity markets are fairly valued, a significant increase from the 20% that said the markets were well-priced at the end of the fourth quarter. Russell Investments is headquartered in Tacoma, Wash.