On the heels of a blockbuster inflow the prior week, US equity-focused ETFs and mutual funds saw the largest exodus in more than a year ahead of the March FOMC meeting.

The $22 billion redemption erased nearly half of the $56 billion haul from the prior week, which counted as the single-largest inflow on record.

If you bailed on risk assets because you thought the Fed might tip one fewer rate cuts for 2024 in the dot plot refresh, you made a mistake. Global equities were on track for their best week of the year following the Fed meeting. A rate cut from the SNB and dovish messaging from the BoE didn’t hurt.

With the past week’s outflow, the YTD net influx to US-focused equity funds stands at $58 billion.

The redemptions from US funds were to blame for a $21 billion net outflow from global equities. The breakdown showed a modest redemption from EM-focused funds and another outflow from EU shares, offset in part by a 10th straight inflow to Japanese stocks.

Elsewhere, emerging market and high yield debt funds saw outflows, indicative, perhaps, of a moderation in risk appetite. IG bonds extended what feels like a never-ending streak of inflows.

Notably, gold funds saw the most interest since last May.

Bullion of course scaled new records recently, on what some say are devaluation concerns tied to developed market central banks’ apparent inclination to cut rates before inflation recedes entirely.

“Central banks [are] tolerant of higher inflation, intolerant of currency appreciation,” BofA’s Michael Hartnett remarked.

Policymakers, he went on, are anxious “to alleviate the burden of a record $82 trillion of global government debt [which is] why bonds are in a bear [market] and stocks and gold [are] at all-time highs.”

Earlier this week, SocGen’s Albert Edwards suggested central banks intend to let inflation run hot in perpetuity in order to inflate away the debt of their respective sovereigns.