"Capitulatory Inflows": The Complete Flows, Technicals And Positioning Market Recap

A quick look at last week's market action shows it was divided in two halves: the first half of the week was volatile, with mixed data (CPI), some disappointing earnings (WFC, STT, BLK) and Tariffs threats, the pressure on indices culminating with a new round of speculation regarding Trump firing Powell. This, however, gave way to a second half best described as goldilocks, with PPI/Retail Sales/Philly Fed/UMich pointing in the right direction and in the end, 61% of reporting firms beating consensus by more than one standard deviation (vs. historical average of 48%).

Turning to micro, Goldman's trading floor wrote in its weekly recap (available here to pro subs) that Long Onlys didn’t have a clear skew, finishing flat on the week, while there was some "capitulatory inflows" with uncomfortable underweights getting bought (Info Tech, Comm Services, Financials). And according to Goldman's Prime Brokerage stats, Hedge Funds net sold Global Equities at the fastest pace in over 3 months, as macro shorts were being pressed.