Clients of Bank of America have continued buying US stocks for a tenth straight week, with individual investors leading the investment tsunami. Reflecting ongoing investor interest in the American stock market, last week's inflows came to $2.1 billion according to BofA's equities client flow trends report.
Private clients, who have led inflows for the past 10 weeks, have mostly fueled this steady buying trend. While hedge funds have been net sellers for the past two weeks, possibly altering their positions depending on market conditions or strategic reallocations, institutional investors have also made, albeit minor, contributions.
With Communication Services and Technology topping the inflows, clients focused purchases toward five of the eleven sectors. But financials and industrials saw the most notable withdrawals; Financials saw their biggest outflows since the industry broke out from Real Estate in 2016.
Fascinatingly, Growth-oriented ETFs drew greater attention than Value ETFs even if Blended ETFs garnered the biggest total inflows. Clearly preferring large-cap equities, BofA customers purchased US stocks for the ninth straight in the most recent week.
This continuous investment pattern into US stocks coincides with a period when the market has been negotiating several economic signals, including possible interest rate adjustments and inflation issues. Particularly the ongoing purchasing by private clients points to a degree of confidence or at least a purposeful choice to make stock investments in the middle of a convoluted economic environment.
With net buying noted in 12 of the past 16 years, January has traditionally been a solid month for client equities inflows looking ahead. This would suggest that, particularly if the state of the market stays positive or gets better, the present buying surge may last. Still, investors are alert, particularly with relation to anticipated Federal Reserve actions and world economic developments.