Markets rise on earnings but some investors think stocks have peaked

Markets rose on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent, the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.3 percent and the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.4 percent.

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK, wrote in anote that fears around a potential trade war and geopolitical concerns “have faded very much”.

“Earnings season in the U.S. has started well,” noted Richard Perry, market analyst at Hantec Markets.

However, findings from Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s monthly survey of fund managers released on Tuesday showed that earnings expectations may have peaked, with a net 8 percent of respondents looking for earnings per share to substantially rise in the next 12 months, down from 35 percent in February.

With the decline in earnings expectations, the amount of cash held by funds jumped to 5 percent in April from 4.6 percent while 18 percent of managers think the stock market has peaked.