Fund managers prefer the prospects for US equities over other markets - including emerging markets - for the first time since 2001, according to research published today.

Over a third of investors would most like to overweight US equities over the next 12 months. This means their allocation of assets to the market would take up a greater proportion of their portfolio than the benchmark against which they measure their performance, according to the monthly Merrill Lynch survey of over 200 professional investors, economists and fund managers.