Aug 7 (Reuters) – U.S. equity funds recorded outflows in the week to August 5 as some investors cashed in gains after a record-setting market rally and awaited Friday’s July jobs report, a key input for Federal Reserve rate expectations.
Investors divested a net $1.58 billion worth of U.S. equity funds during the week, partly reversing the prior week’s $11.77 billion net investments, LSEG Lipper data showed.
The S&P 500 rebounded about 6.5% from last week’s low of 7,313.92 to reach a record high of 7,793.68 on Wednesday, buoyed by strong results from companies including Amazon, Caterpillar and Palantir Technologies.
Investors await the Labor Department’s July employment report for clues on the interest-rate outlook. Economists expect payrolls to have risen by 80,000 in July after a 57,000 gain in June, while unemployment is forecast to hold at 4.2%.
U.S. equity growth funds recorded net outflows of $5.5 billion during the week, more than offsetting the $3.1 billion in inflows seen the previous week. Investors, however, made net purchases of $1.99 billion in value funds.
Weekly investment in sector funds, meanwhile, eased to a three-week low of $1.62 billion, as net purchases of technology funds fell to a six-week low of $388 million.
Industrials, healthcare and consumer discretionary funds, however, attracted notable net inflows of $875 million, $866 million and $708 million, respectively.
U.S. bond funds attracted net weekly inflows of $6.52 billion, with demand strengthening after $1.26 billion in net inflows the previous week.
Short-to-intermediate investment-grade funds, short-to-intermediate government and Treasury funds, and municipal debt funds led bond fund inflows, drawing net purchases of $2.05 billion, $1.3 billion and $1.15 billion, respectively.
Money market funds also saw renewed interest, attracting $55.69 billion in inflows after three consecutive weeks of outflows.
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Susan Fenton)
