Bank of America customers withdrew $3.3 billion from the market, and the outflow of funds from single stocks reached the highest level since early April.
According to the latest analysis by Bank of America's global research team, despite the S&P 500 rising by 0.9% last week, the financial institution's clients sold U.S. stocks. Specifically, customers withdrew $3.3 billion from the market, and the outflow of funds from single stocks reached the highest level since early April. At the same time, demand for trading exchange traded funds (ETFs) increased.
In this trend, institutional clients played a key role. After being net buyers for two consecutive weeks, these clients led the selling activity last week. In contrast, hedge funds exhibited the opposite behavior, becoming net buyers, with their overall inflow volume hitting the largest single-week record since October 2023.
From an industry perspective, the financial industry experienced the largest outflow of funds this week, reaching the highest level since 2008. In addition, the industrial and medical care industries also experienced outflows, with the weekly outflow in the industrial sector being the highest since December, while the weekly outflow in the medical care sector was the highest since May.
In terms of trading exchange-traded funds, Bank of America's clients have been buying stock ETFs for six consecutive weeks. Five of the 11 S&P index sectors saw net new fund inflows. The healthcare select sector ETF (XLV.US) attracted the most money, while the technology sector select index ETF (XLK.US) recorded the largest weekly fund outflow. In addition, customers purchased ETFs covering all asset types, including diversified bond, growth ETF (VUG.US), value ETF (VTV.US) and most size-segmented markets such as large-cap, small-cap and mid-cap funds.
Although the overall market performance has been positive, Bank of America's clients' fund flows show that investors' preferences between different asset classes and industries are changing. This dynamic reflects market participants' different views on the current economic environment and future market trends, as well as their strategy adjustments.