Equity Strategy - Who Owns What: Toppish maybe, but not priced for peace

Research evidence excerpt

Equity Strategy - Who Owns What: Toppish maybe, but not priced for peace

Equity Research

Equity Strategy

27 May 2026

Equity Strategy - Who Owns What

Toppish maybe, but not priced for

peace

Market may feel toppish amid extended HF/CTA longs, narrow

European Equity Strategy

breadth and IPO pick-up. But LO/retail/risk control have dry Emmanuel Cau, CFA

powder left and x-asset/sector positioning is not back to pre- +44 (0)20 3134 0475 emmanuel.cau@barclays.com

war level. So room for lower oil/yields to push stocks higher Barclays, UK

and broader into EU/ROW/cyclical laggards IF peace deal. Magesh Kumar Chandrasekaran, CFA

+44 (0)20 3134 5983

magesh.kumarchandrasekaran@barclays.com

Barclays, UK

 Listen Emmanuel Makonga

+44 (0)20 7773 2593

emmanuel.makonga@barclays.comPlease register here to join our conference call on the flows and positioning update on Wed 27th

May.

Arihanth Bohra Jain

CTA/HFs buying spree masks uneven positioning overall. CTAs and Hedge funds have raised +91 (0)22 6175 1406

their equity exposure back to the highs, albeit in a narrow concentrated manner. However, long- arihanth.bohrajain@barclays.com

only equity flows moderated somewhat in May to the lowest levels since January, though still Barclays, UK

healthy at $49bn, and active manager survey shows some moderation in exposure. Retail

European Equity Derivatives Strategy

participation has been soft too, consistent with cautious sentiment indicators. So while it does Anshul Gupta

feel that 'everyone is worried but nobody wants to be short', overall positioning is not extreme +44 (0) 20 7773 0430

and dry powder remains. anshul.gupta@barclays.com

X-asset positioning not back to pre-war level. Oil and US equities have taken the lead since