Did you buy the dip? Some folks did.

I don’t love “analyzing” flows data anywhere near quarter-end, particularly during quarters when stock and bond performance diverges to the degree it did in Q1, but it was certainly worth noting on Friday that the latest flows data showed an enormous inflow to global equities during a stretch that included a correction on Wall Street.

As the figure below shows, equity-focused ETFs took in $56.5 billion, according to EPFR’s weekly update, nearly double the next closest weekly inflow of 2025.

Net that against a $13 billion outflow from mutual funds (i.e., the ongoing active-to-passive shift) and you get a $43.5 billion influx, bringing the total inflow for 2025 to almost $200 billion.

Needless to say, that’s not indicative of the rampant fear telegraphed by, for example, the March vintage of BofA’s closely-watched Global Fund Manager Survey, which reflected the second-biggest MoM jump in growth pessimism since the early 90s.

“Watch what they do, not what they say,” the bank’s Michael Hartnett quipped, editorializing around the tsunami of inflows to equity funds, which included the year’s largest haul for US shares.

The figure shows the breakdown. US-focused funds took in $34 billion over the week. That came on the heels of a $2.5 billion outflow the week before.

So far in 2025, the net inflow to US shares stands at nearly $156 billion, hardly suggestive of an investor community excited to abandon the world’s best companies. “For every $100 of inflows into US equity funds since the US election,” there’s been just “$1 of outflows in recent weeks,” Hartnett remarked.

That said, note from the second chart above that European shares saw yet another big inflow. $5.6 billion counts as a lot for Europe-focused funds, and indeed this was the second week during which those funds saw a net inflow of $5 billion or more. Over the last six weeks, European equities have taken in almost $23 billion.

Foreigners were big sellers of US shares over the last week, as the figure on the left, below, shows.

But the figure on the right, from the government Flow of Funds series, gives you some context for the value of foreign holdings, which’ve soared since the pandemic.

Hartnett went on to flag a “huge” two-week stock-buying spree by BofA’s private clients. Similarly, JPMorgan data suggested retail investors poured $12 billion into US stocks in the week to Wednesday.

Summing it up, Hartnett wrote that “global investors are not anywhere close to short US or global equities” despite trade war concerns and growth worries.