Bank of America reports that clients funnelled the largest sum of money into us equities last week since October, with investor preference for individual stocks over exchange-traded funds reaching a record level. There were inflows of $3.7 billion in what was the fourth consecutive week of buying, led by institutional clients.
"Clients bought stocks in seven sectors, led by tech and healthcare (biggest healthcare inflows since Dec. 2021). Tech has seen buying every week but one YTD," BofA reports. "Energy stocks saw the biggest outflows after the prior week’s record inflows. Clients bought Financials for the fourth straight week; both institutional and retail clients were buyers," BofA strategists wrote in a client note. Materials attracted inflows again and now have the longest buying streak (nine weeks). On the other hand, buybacks were light with the strategists noting that buybacks tend to slow over the next three weeks into earnings.
If we go back to October, it was a good time to buy.
