The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt on Friday. 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, reports Reuters.
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 $22.01bn 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 results next week for clues on demand for AI infrastructure and data-center revenue. By region, US equity funds attracted $11.72bn, their largest weekly inflow since July 29. European and Asian equity funds also saw net purchases of $4.70bn and $2.96bn, respectively.
Among sectoral funds, technology funds attracted $1.55bn in inflows after a week of net outflows. Investors also bought $536mn in gold and precious-metals equity funds but sold $1.59bn of financial-sector funds.
Meanwhile, investors extended net purchases of bond funds for a 20th consecutive week, adding a net $15.42bn. They bought a net $4.49bn of hard-currency bond funds, their largest weekly purchase since July 8. Short-term and government bond funds also saw notable inflows of $3.32bn and $1.99bn, respectively. Weekly net inflows in money market funds stood at $3.71bn, a three-week low. In commodities, gold and other precious-metals funds attracted $2.04bn, extending their inflow streak to six weeks.