Record cash streamed out of US-based stock funds and billions more fled bonds in a week of apparently escalated caution, Lipper data showed on Thursday. More than $46 billion thundered out of US stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the most ever, while a near-record $13 billion poured from bonds, according to the research service. Relatively low-risk money market funds pulled in $81 billion, also the most recorded, the research service's data showed.
The withdrawals appeared to show investor confidence cracking in the waning days of a wild year of up-and-down trading that has left many people with losses across both stock and bond funds, a rare occurrence. The end-of-year numbers could also reflect changes related to capital gains distributions and as investors re-evaluate their holdings for tax reasons and other purposes, though in other years the volume has not been this high in a single week.
US Federal Reserve rate hikes, high corporate borrowing, rising relative yields on short-term bonds, US-China trade tensions and slowing growth in corporate profits have left investors with much to stew over. The average US-based equity fund is down 6.3 percent in the year through December 11, while its bond counterpart is down 0.9 percent, Lipper said.
More than $45 billion of the withdrawals came from equity mutual funds, heavily used by retail investors during the week. Lipper measures a week as the seven-day period from Thursday to Wednesday, and much of its records date back to 1992.
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