By Sam Boughedda
BofA analysts said in their "flow show" note on Friday that the 60% stocks and 40% bonds traditional portfolio is up 6.8% for the year-to-date, recording its best start since 1991.
The analysts added that a "slightly safer" 40% stocks-60% bonds portfolio is up 6.5%, not lagging by much, while the evenly split and "very conservative" 25% cash, 25% commodity, 25% bonds, 25% stocks portfolio is up a respectable 2.5% so far this year.
Investors generally favor the 60/40 portfolio strategy, opting for bonds to potentially cushion a fall in equities.
In addition, there was the first outflow in U.S. Treasuries in 11 weeks ($63 million), with more inflows to IG bonds ($6 billion), but the pace is slowing, according to the analysts.
The first tech inflow in 11 weeks occurred, at $1B, while in Europe, stock outflows are resuming at $0.7B.
"EM debt & equity inflows rolling over - 1st outflow EM equities in 8 weeks," the analysts wrote, adding that there was the largest outflow of $3.1B in Chinese equities since Mar 2022.
Finally, healthcare experienced outflows over the past four weeks, which were the largest since January 2019.