Global equity funds drew their largest weekly inflows in three weeks through August 19 as investors bet on a strong earnings season, though rising bond yields and oil prices began to weigh on markets.
The fund-flow data preceded a broad late-week selloff. Global stocks were on track for their steepest weekly decline since mid-July on Friday as higher government bond yields, elevated oil prices and renewed inflation concerns pressured equity valuations.
Global equity funds drew net inflows of $22.01 billion during the week, their biggest weekly gain since July 29, according to LSEG Lipper data.
Investors remained upbeat about the strong earnings season, as roughly 90% of MSCI World companies had reported second-quarter results, with combined net income rising 39.7% from a year earlier, LSEG data showed.
Anthropic projected strong revenue growth earlier this week. Investors are now awaiting Nvidia's (NVDA.O) results next week for clues on demand for AI infrastructure and data-center revenue.
By region, U.S. equity funds attracted $11.72 billion, their largest weekly inflow since July 29. European and Asian equity funds also saw net purchases of $4.70 billion and $2.96 billion, respectively.
Among sectoral funds, technology funds attracted $1.55 billion in inflows after a week of net outflows. Investors also bought $536 million in gold and precious-metals equity funds but sold $1.59 billion of financial-sector funds.
Meanwhile, investors extended net purchases of bond funds for a 20th consecutive week, adding a net $15.42 billion.
They bought a net $4.49 billion of hard-currency bond funds, their largest weekly purchase since July 8. Short-term and government bond funds also saw notable inflows of $3.32 billion and $1.99 billion, respectively.
Weekly net inflows in money market funds stood at $3.71 billion, a three-week low.
In commodities, gold and other precious-metals funds attracted $2.04 billion, extending their inflow streak to six weeks. Energy funds, however, posted $146 million in outflows after drawing $434 million the previous week.
Data on 28,980 emerging-market funds showed equity funds remained in demand for a sixth straight week, attracting $1.57 billion in inflows. Bond funds also drew a net $493 million, marking a third consecutive weekly inflow.
