Despite a 1.4 percent rise in the S&P 500, Bank of America Securities clients were net sellers of U.S. stocks last week, selling $4.6 billion after two weeks of inflows.
According to a report on Tuesday, customers mostly sold individual stocks and bought exchange-traded funds (ETFs) instead. Large- and mid-cap stocks saw outflows, while small-cap stocks saw inflows for the fourth week in a row.
Selling came from institutional and hedge fund clients, reversing their buying trend from the previous week. Retail clients, on the other hand, remained net sellers for the third week in a row.
Meanwhile, corporate repurchases slowed, falling below seasonal levels as a percentage of the S&P 500 market cap for the first time in 24 weeks. Year-to-date, repurchases as a percentage of market cap are “still on track for a record year in our data history,” BofA said.
Customers sold stocks in seven sectors. The technology sector saw its first outflow in three weeks and the consumer discretionary sector saw its first outflow in six weeks. Meanwhile, the communications services and utilities sectors saw the largest inflows, with the communications sector recording the longest buying streak at 21 weeks.
Energy stocks have seen five weeks of continuous sell-offs, and industrial stocks have seen outflows in six of the last seven weeks.
Meanwhile, ETF inflows continued for the third week in a row across all investment styles and all market sizes except mid-caps. Unlike individual stocks, technology ETFs saw the largest inflows, while energy ETFs saw the largest outflows.
US stocks ended last week higher, boosted by comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggesting impending interest rate cuts.
