LONDON (Reuters) -Hedge funds returned 1.3% in September, with managers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East outperforming their North American rivals, according to a JPMorgan client note on Thursday, seen by Reuters on Friday.

Global equities in September climbed 3.4%. An index of developed market sovereign bonds rose around 0.7% last month.

The JPMorgan note, which tracks hedge fund trading, said positioning in U.S. stocks was only "somewhat bullish," indicating an expectation for equities to rise. 

Crowding in the biggest "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks, which include Apple, Amazon and Nvidia, remained near historical highs, the note said. 

In Europe, stock-pickers tended to bet that equities would rise. But multi-strategy funds - those that trade many strategies - and quantitative funds, which use algorithms, tended to wager that stock prices would decline. 

In Asia, where stocks rose, hedge funds had more bets on a decline than a rise, the note said. 

The $92.1 billion Bridgewater notched a 6% monthly gain in its Pure Alpha fund to September 29. From the beginning of the year until September 29, Bridgewater's Pure Alpha, Asia Total Return, All Weather, and China Total Return funds posted returns of 26.2%, 32.5%, 15.3%, and 28.4%, respectively.

British hedge fund Marshall Wace posted September returns of 1.32%, up 8.04% for the year so far in its Eureka Fund, a source said. The $79 billion hedge fund's Market Neutral Tops fund returned 0.45% in September and was up 13.66% for the year, the source added.

Systematic stock-trading hedge funds, such as Marshall Wace, are up over 13% for 2025 so far, Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients.

Multi-strategy funds remained largely flat on the month, apart from the $28 billion Balyasny Asset Management, which added 1.3% in September to its annual return so far this year of 10%, another source with knowledge of the matter said.