Analysts at Bank of America noted a third week of equity selling in its latest equity client flow trends note on Tuesday, stating that institutional clients continue to sell.
"Last week, during which the S&P 500 was -0.8%, BofA Securities clients were net sellers of US equities (-$3.3B) for the third straight week," wrote the bank. "Sales continued to be driven by single stocks, while ETFs saw inflows."
Institutional clients are said to have led the selling for a third consecutive week, although private clients were also sellers.
BofA's hedge fund clients were net buyers after selling the week before. In addition, the bank said clients sold small caps for the third consecutive week despite the recent rally, while they bought large caps, with mid caps seeing four weeks of outflows.
Elsewhere, the bank notes that buybacks remain strong, with corporate client buybacks accelerating last week. Even so, they state that buybacks typically increase at this point of earnings season. However, they continue to track above typical seasonal levels as a percent of the S&P 500 market cap for the 20th straight week.
Tech is said to have seen the largest outflows last week, while communication services led the inflows.
"AI monetization vs. capex/investment are in focus," states BofA. Elsewhere, financials and industrials both saw a third week of outflows.
Meanwhile, BofA says six sectors saw inflows last week, with clients buying discretionary, staples, health care, real estate and utilities in addition to communication services.
Furthermore, BofA clients bought Equity ETFs for an eighth week in a row, with inflows across six of 11 ETF sectors. In contrast to single stock flows, Tech ETFs saw the largest inflows for a second consecutive week.