Last week, when the US stock market was rising, Bank of America's clients were selling

According to the latest analysis from the global research team of Bank of America, despite a 0.9% increase in the S&P 500 index last week, the financial institution's clients net sold U.S. stocks. Specifically, clients withdrew $3.3 billion from the market, with the outflow of funds for individual stocks reaching the highest level since early April. At the same time, there was an increase in demand for Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). In this trend, institutional clients played a key role. After being net buyers for two consecutive weeks, these clients led the selling activity last week. In contrast, hedge funds exhibited the opposite behavior, becoming net buyers and achieving the largest weekly inflow since October 2023. From an industry perspective, the financial sector experienced the largest outflow of funds this week, reaching the highest level since 2008. Additionally, the industrial and healthcare sectors also saw outflows, with the industrial sector experiencing the largest weekly outflow since December and the healthcare sector seeing the largest outflow since May. Regarding ETFs, Bank of America's clients purchased stock ETFs for the sixth consecutive week, with net new fund inflows in 5 out of the 11 S&P sector ETFs. The Healthcare Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV.US) attracted the most inflows, while the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK.US) recorded the largest weekly outflow. Furthermore, the purchased ETFs covered all asset types, including blended, growth ETFs (VUG.US), value ETFs (VTV.US), and most market capitalizations such as large, small, and mid-cap funds. Despite the overall positive market performance, the fund flows of Bank of America's clients indicate changing preferences among investors across different asset classes and industries. This dynamic reflects market participants' varying views on the current economic environment and future market trends, leading to strategic adjustments