June 12 (Reuters) – Investors pulled money out of U.S. equity funds in the week to June 10 on caution over a market selloff and expectatons that the Federal Reserve would stay hawkish for longer, but still raised their exposure to the technology sector.
According to LSEG Lipper data, investors withdrew a net $12.57 billion out of U.S. equity funds in their first weekly net sales since May 20.
Rate-hike bets surged after last week’s strong jobs report and Wednesday’s hot inflation print, but October hike odds eased to 34.6% from 51% on renewed hopes of an Iran-U.S. peace deal, CME FedWatch showed.
U.S. large-cap funds saw $10.2 billion in net outflows in the week, while mid-cap and small-cap funds recorded net sales of $1 billion and $2.22 billion, respectively.
The tech sector garnered a net $4.39 billion of weekly purchase as these funds remained popular for a tenth straight week. Investors also bought financial sector funds of a significant $655 million.
U.S. bond fund inflows stood at a three week high of $12.08 billion during the week.
Investors bought short-to-intermediate investment-grade funds of $5.09 billion, the most in five weeks, while $4.14 billion of net purchases in short-to-intermediate government and treasury funds was the largest in three weeks.
Money market funds witnessed a weekly net sale of $16.34 billion after $111.36 billion of net purchases the prior week.
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
