A recent note from Bank of America showed that equity funds focused on Europe experienced their biggest outflows in close to a year.
The bank said investors withdrew $2.4B from those funds, marking the 12th straight week of outflows and the biggest single-week withdrawal since Oct. 2023.
BofA noted that this brought the year-to-date outflows from equity funds focused on Europe to a massive $37.4B.
Most of the recent outflows have come from active funds with $1.66B in withdrawals, the biggest in 17 weeks, while passive funds experienced an outflow of $0.73B, only the second in the past 6 weeks.
Bank of America said that although Switzerland and value stocks attracted slight inflows of $0.13B and $0.16B, respectively, other areas battled.
Growth stocks, the UK, and financials were hardest hit, with outflows of $0.26B, $0.54B, and $0.62B, respectively. No sector recorded inflows during the week.
BofA’s analysis also underlined that their Style Cycle model was still in the “Recovery” phase as of Aug. 2024, but that the European Composite Macro Indicator had been dropping.
They stated that if the trend continued, this downturn may next month potentially move the market into the “Recession” phase.
The bank says the trends showed growing investor caution towards equity funds focused on Europe.
