The Investment Company Institute reported back-to-back weeks of net inflows to mutual funds that invest long-term in U.S. stocks, a rarity since the May 6 Flash Crash.
Investors put $493 million into such mutual funds in the week ended December 29, 2010. That follows the $14 million that went into such funds the prior week.
But those numbers were almost rounding errors compared to the first three weeks, when $6.8 billion were pulled out of long-term funds that invest in U.S. stocks.
All told, nearly $90 billion, by ICI numbers, have been pulled out of domestic long-term equity funds since the May 6 Flash Crash. That event appeared to trigger a lack of confidence in U.S. markets by U.S. investors.
Total estimated inflows to long-term mutual funds, worldwide, were $3.47 billion for the last week of December.
Domestic equity funds had estimated inflows of $493 million, while estimated inflows to foreign equity funds were $2.29 billion.
Hybrid funds, which can invest in stocks and fixed income securities, had estimated inflows
of $1.05 billion for the week, compared to estimated inflows of $1.58 billion in the previous week.
Bond funds had estimated outflows of $360 million, compared to estimated outflows of $4.35 billion during the previous week.
Taxable bond funds saw estimated inflows of $2.47 billion, while municipal bond funds had estimated outflows of $2.83 billion.
