The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

It was just a week ago when US equity-focused ETFs and mutual funds raked in $26.4 billion, in what counted as the largest one-week inflow since March of 2022.

Notably, the influx pushed net flows for US equity funds into positive territory for the first time this year.

Alas, the lion’s share of that haul hit the exits just a week later. Nearly $18 billion fled the “same” US-focused stock funds over the latest weekly reporting period, according to the latest EPFR data.

Flows are now back in negative territory on net for the year.

As the figure shows, the exodus was the largest of 2023, a head-spinning turnaround from the prior week.

As a result, outflows from developed market equity funds were nearly $20 billion over the week. European-focused funds saw a 28th straight weekly outflow.

Inflows to EM funds resumed after two weeks of outflows. Emerging market equity fund inflows are approaching $100 billion for 2023. DM funds, meanwhile, have managed just $2.9 billion in net inflows.

Meanwhile, Treasurys saw $2.5 billion of inflows over the week. It was the 32nd straight weekly inflow. That continues to make for a rather stark juxtaposition with the ongoing increase in yields.

Global money funds saw a small outflow, consistent with the $7 billion of redemptions from US funds reported by ICI. That hardly changes the story: Inflows to global money market funds stand at $1 trillion YTD.

“Investors are cautious and ‘paid to wait,'” and yet $147 billion to Treasurys, $145 billion to IG bonds, $98 billion to equities and $35 billion to tech so far this year doesn’t exactly scream bearish, BofA’s Michael Hartnett remarked. “Bearish investors sell.” In aggregate, there’s been no selling in bonds, credit and stocks in 2023.