Bank of America released its latest equity client flow trends note on Tuesday, revealing that last week, outflows continued with "record selling in health care."
The bank said that last week, when the S&P 500 was -1%, its clients were net sellers of US equities, with outflows primarily in single stocks, representing the largest outflows since July 2023. However, ETFs saw inflows for a fourth consecutive week.
Institutional and hedge fund clients were sellers, for the third and fifth consecutive weeks, respectively, while BofA said retail clients were net buyers for the first time in nine weeks.
BofA's clients sold stocks in six of the 11 sectors, led by health care and tech. Health care saw the largest weekly outflow in the investment bank's data history (since 2008) and has the "longest recent selling streak of any sector (last eight weeks)."
Meanwhile, tech saw its first outflows since mid-February, while communication services stocks saw the largest inflows after seeing outflows the week before.
When it comes to corporate client buybacks, BofA said they decelerated last week but are tracking above typical seasonal levels at this time for the fifth consecutive week, with the rolling 52-week total at the highest since mid-2020.