Foreign investors dump US$6.5 billion of US equities in a week

Foreign investors dumped US$6.5 billion (HK$50.7 billion) of US equities in the five trading sessions ending Wednesday, BofA Global Research said on Friday, as tariff induced turmoil gripped markets.

Safe haven US Treasuries saw their biggest ever weekly inflow of US$18.8 billion, while investors withdrew US$21.3 billion from active equity funds and a record US$15.9 billion from high yield bond funds, BofA said in its weekly round up of flows in and out of world markets.

Equity funds actually saw inflows of US$48.9 billion, but BofA said "liquidation events" such as the collapse of Lehman Brothers or during the spread of Covid, "cause ETF share creation to facilitate stock sales and shorting."

Reuters