US equity funds attract fifth straight weekly inflow amid robust earnings results

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(Reuters) -U.S. equity funds attracted investment inflows for a fifth week in a row as investors focused on robust third-quarter earnings growth and brushed off concerns of lofty tech sector valuations.

They invested a net $4.36 billion into U.S. equity funds in the week through November 19, a nearly fourfold increase from approximately $965 million the prior week, LSEG Lipper data showed.

“The resilient economic and corporate earnings growth outlook, and the accelerating impact of AI and longevity reinforce our positive view on U.S. equities,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer, UBS Global Wealth Management.

LSEG data for 473 S&P 500 companies showed that their third-quarter profits rose 16.3% from a year ago, more than three times analyst forecasts for a 4.9% increase.

“The third-quarter earnings season was robust,” UBS’s Haefele said.

The S&P 500 Index, however, hit a two-month low of 6534.05 on Thursday amid a selloff in the technology sector and as delayed data muddied the labor market outlook.

In the most recent week, investors added $6.93 billion into large-cap funds, up sharply from the $2.38 billion in net purchases the prior week.

Small-cap funds drew a net $404 million, while mid-cap funds saw a net $2.04 billion outflow.

Net U.S. bond fund inflows cooled to a seven-week low of $4.11 billion in the week.

Short-to-intermediate government and treasury funds attracted a net $1.45 billion, roughly halving from $3.01 billion the prior week.

General domestic taxable fixed-income funds added a net $1.93 billion, in line with the previous week’s $1.96 billion.

Money market funds saw a net $22.89 billion worth of sales as outflows extended into a second successive week.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)