BlackRock is steering clients out of US stocks and into short-term government bonds, a bad signal for anyone still riding the AI rally.

• The world's largest fund manager now favors 30-day bonds over stocks, saying the AI trade has left the market overstretched.
• It is avoiding long-term bonds too, a bet that interest rates keep climbing from here.
• The warning points at bad news landing in the second half of the year, with big investors holding cash to buy the wreckage.
• The IMF cut the other way the same day, saying the global economy will slow less than feared in 2026 because the AI boom offsets the war — but that reading looks backward, not forward.
• Small investors hear the IMF and keep buying while the largest players quietly step back.

Outlook: If rates keep rising, stocks look exposed into the back half of the year while cash and short bonds hold their value.