By David Randall
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors retreated from the U.S. stock market last week despite the benchmark S&P 500 reaching new record highs, pulling nearly $9.1 billion from mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that hold domestic stocks, according to data released Wednesday by the Investment Company Institute.
The move away from the U.S. market came on the heels of $1.1 billon in inflows the week before, continuing a pattern in which the outsized gains in S&P 500 have been unable to attract investors en masse. The benchmark index is up more than 20% for the year to date, thanks in part to expectations of at least one equity-friendly interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve this year. Over the same time, investors have pulled nearly $67 billion out of domestic stock funds.
Instead, investors continued to pile into fixed income by sending $10.4 billion into taxable and municipal bond funds, extending a streak of positive inflows over every full week of the year that has brought more than $255 billion into the category.
World stock funds, meanwhile, continued a 9-week losing streak by dropping slightly more than $1 billion in assets. Investors have pulled approximately $20.5 billion from the category since the start of the year.