Investors stockpiled riskier assets during the latest week, delivering US-based funds the most cash in more than a year, data from fund trade group Investment Company Institute showed on Wednesday. Mutual and exchange-traded funds in the United States took in $19.6 billion during the week ended on July 13, the most since they gathered $21.1 billion in June 2015.
ETFs took in most of the money, offsetting $3.1 billion pulled from mutual funds, ICI said. Investors have been moving money from US stockpickers to buy bond funds and ETFs for the better part of this year.
The strong inflows, powered by $11.5 billion into bond funds and $8.7 billion into domestic equity funds, showed investors moving to take advantage of a strong rally as US stock market indexes chart record highs.
ETF strategist Sebastian Mercado of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc said investors' first reaction to Britain's June 23 vote to exit the European Union was to dump risky assets.
"It was very short, actually," Mercado noted, "and then people started to move quickly to a significant risk-on trade."
That reversal has stimulated more buying in US and emerging-market stocks as well as corporate debt while slowing buying of gold and government bonds. High-yield bond mutual funds attracted $2.5 billion, their largest haul since the week through March 2.
The $29.3 billion that funds took in over the last two weeks more than makes up for the $10.6 billion pulled immediately after Brexit, according to ICI.