Institutional investors are reducing their stock exposure: The funding spread is down ~50 basis points over the last few weeks, its lowest since August 2024. This measures institutional demand for long stock exposure through futures, options, and swaps. Interestingly, the drop began after the December 18th Fed meeting. Such a rapid decline in spreads was previously seen in December 2021, before the 2022 bear market. Will these institutional investors start buying the dip soon?