By David Randall
(Reuters) - The final days of the best quarter for the benchmark S&P 500 since 1998 were not enough to keep investors from pulling $4.6 billion out of U.S.-based stock funds in the week that ended Wednesday, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.
The S&P 500 500 rebounded from its stark drop in the first quarter to rally nearly 20% between April and June. The pace of gains has slowed over the last two weeks, however, as states including Florida and Texas have posted a series of new record highs for coronavirus infections. The United States posted its largest one-day spike on record on Wednesday.
For the year to date, the S&P 500 is now down 2.9% after hitting record highs in late February.
Fears of a second wave of infections helped boost taxable bond funds, which attracted $5.6 billion last week. The category has now garnered 12 straight weeks of inflows, helping push the yields of U.S. Treasuries near historic lows.
U.S. money market funds, meanwhile, lost $28 billion in the week, the seventh straight weekly outflow.