U.S. stocks drop 4.2 in April, worst month since Sept.
Fed rate cut bets derailed by inflation
Europe, emerging markets eyed as havens
Big investors cut U.S. tech exposure, buy protection

LONDON, May 1 Reuters Global investors are eyeing European and emerging market assets to protect themselves from further turbulence in U.S. stocks and bonds as stubborn inflation causes bets on the timing of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts to be revised.

April was a washout on Wall Street, with the SP 500 share index and U.S. Treasuries posting their biggest monthly loss since September.

Money managers are now looking for ways to limit losses if the trend does not reverse.

That could entail the restructuring of portfolios that had been lifted for years by richlyvalued U.S. equities, said Sonja Laud, CIO at Legal General Investment Management, which manages roughly 1.5 trillion.

Diversification will be a lot more important going forward, she said, adding that LGIM was not expecting superior returns from global stocks but now preferred European shares to those from the United States.

Amelie Derambure, senior multiasset manager at Amundi, Europe39;s biggest asset manager, said she still expected longterm gains from U.S. stocks but had bought put options to protect against a 10 fall. She had also switched some cash out of Treasuries into euro zone bonds.

The SP 500 fell 4.2 in April.

ENTER EUROPE

U.S. stocks have provided about 80 of the price return of the MSCI World…