Outflows from US equities are ongoing.

If this feels a bit Phil Connors–ish to you, you’re not wrong. But there’s no need to check your calendar. I’m not running last week’s news, unless by that you mean this week’s news just happens to be the same as last week’s. And the prior week’s, and so on.

US-focused equity mutual funds and ETFs shed more than $8.6 billion over the latest weekly reporting period, according to EPFR. It was the fifth straight week of outflows and the eighth in nine.

For 2023, the net outflow is approaching $70 billion ($59.5 billion from mutual funds and $7 billion from ETFs). That’s largely to thank for the net $52 billion YTD redemption from developed market-focused funds, and thereby for the stark DM-EM divide.

Updated with the latest weekly figures, emerging market-focused equity funds have taken in around $56 billion this year, which means that on net, global equity fund flows are basically flat.

Of course, just as a quick look at the DM-EM divide reveals a stark divergence, so too does the breakdown by country, sector and so on. Tech shares, for example, have seen some sizable inflows recently.

But if you’re a “30,000-foot” type, it’s worth noting that if you pan out to capture the entirety of the post-GFC era and look at cumulative equity flows, you’re left to ponder a plateau following the almost unfathomable cash influx witnessed during the pandemic stock-buying bonanza.

The chart, from BofA, has ominous overtones. The annotations are from Michael Hartnett, who’s described himself as a “patient bear” on a few occasions.

And yet, as Hartnett readily admitted last week, market participants aren’t always patient when it comes to bear cases that don’t pan out. “Clients are so bored of bears,” he remarked, even as BofA said they’d “still” be inclined to fade SPX 4,200.