LONDON (Reuters) – Investors pulled a massive $25.8 billion out of U.S. equity funds in the week to Wednesday, the third biggest outflow ever from the asset class, BofA’s weekly fund flow report showed on Friday.
Money was sucked out of sectors which have been the main beneficiaries of the rebound in the wake of the Covid19 March crash, said BofA analysts, citing data for the week to Sept. 23 from financial flow tracking firm EPFR.
Technology stock suffered $1 billion of outflows, the largest since June 2019, while U.S. blue chips haemorrhaged $11.6 billion.
The S&P 500 has lost 7.2% so far in September, its first negative monthly performance since March with the Nasdaq pulling back more than 10%.
“We don’t expect big bear move when Fed so easy, Wall Street flushed with cash, vaccine expectations strong”, BofA analysts however commented, adding a correction in September and October typically corresponded to a “midlife crisis phase of the investment year”.
Other big movements in investment flows this week included high-yield bond funds suffering their largest outflows since March, losing $5.4 billion.
It was also the 12th straight week of inflows for emerging market debt funds while bond funds more broadly added $1.3 billion.
(This story corrects date in the second paragraph to Sept. 23)
(Reporting by Julien Ponthus, editing by Karin Strohecker)
