Equity-focused ETFs and mutual funds saw a seventh week of inflows amid what some describe (read: deride) as dangerously euphoric sentiment around risk assets.

The $6.9 billion inflow over the latest weekly reporting period took the YTD total for global equity funds to $90.9 billion.

Notably, US-focused funds actually saw redemptions on net, snapping a three-week streak of inflows that witnessed nearly $35 billion funneled into US shares.

Japanese equities enjoyed another weekly influx, while European funds continued to bleed.

Emerging market stocks returned to inflows after a rare outflow the prior week. The DM-EM breakdown in 2024 so far is $55.6 billion to EM and $35.3 billion to DM, with US funds accounting for $24 billion of the latter.

In the context of pervasive “bubble” (or, perhaps more aptly, “BUBBLE!”) warnings, the seven-week “impulse” (if you will) is the strongest in two years.

And yet, as the figure above, from BofA, makes abundantly clear, this isn’t 2021 in terms of equity fund flows.

But it’s 2021 and then some for crypto funds, which are more of “a thing” now thanks to the SEC’s ill-advised decision to legitimize the illegitimate. Crypto funds saw another week of inflows as Bitcoin scaled new heights. The latest influx — $1.9 billion — came on the heels of $2.4 billion the prior week.

Obviously, crypto fund flows are off the charts in 2024. Literally. There’s no point in illustrating it. I doubt it’ll end well for new crypto “investors,” but then again, Bitcoin can be kryptonite for naysayers. As I’ve readily conceded time and again, there’s a very real sense in which this ship sailed years (and years) ago. Bitcoin could fall to $100 tomorrow and it wouldn’t make skeptics like me “right.” It went from nothing to $70,000. However it ends (in tears or in more Lambos), early adopters were spectacularly right. Or spectacularly lucky. If you took profits, it scarcely matters which.

Anyway, IG credit funds saw another inflow (the 19th in a row) and global money market funds took in $32 billion. The latest update on US money funds showed MMFs taking in $19 billion on the way to a new AUM record near $6.1 trillion. As BofA’s Michael Hartnett put it, describing the zeitgeist, “$6 trillion to $7 trillion in money market funds and all of it getting 5% in interest… maybe that’s what giving everyone the confidence to go speculate.”