(Bloomberg) -- Hedge funds seem to be as confident as the Federal Reserve that the US economy can avoid a recession despite the burden of higher interest rates. Leveraged investors boosted their net shorts on 10-year Treasury futures to a record 1.29 million contracts as of April 18, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. It was the fifth straight week that net shorts had increased. “Hedge funds may be thinking that inflation will be stickier than many in the market are currently expecting,” said Damien McColough, head of fixed-income research at Westpac Banking Corp. in Sydney.