LONDON (Reuters) – Bond funds enjoyed the largest inflows in three weeks at $12.7 billion in the week to Wednesday with investors putting a record amount of $3.2 billion into Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), BofA said on Friday.
Tracing investor flows through EPFR data, BofA found that investment grade fixed income funds enjoyed their largest intake in three weeks at $6.7 billion while cash pulled in $25.1 billion.
Equity funds attracted $23.2 billion with U.S. stocks enjoying the largest inflows in six weeks at $9.5 billion, BofA found. However, Europe suffered a second straight week of outflows at $200 million.
“Global vaccines in 2021 now surpass 4 billion; but world stuck in new normal of variants, rolling regional lockdowns, closed borders, isolationism,” wrote Michael Hartnett in a note to clients.
“As society’s goalpost for ‘substantial further progress’ on pandemic continue to shift, Wall St remains confident policy makers will continue to extend the $31 trillion of monetary & fiscal stimulus since March 20.”
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)