The holiday celebration is over.
After two weeks in which funds flowing into and out of mutual funds that invest long-term in United States stocks held their own, the bottom dropped out.
Once 2011 arrived, investors pulled $4.2 billion out of domestic equity funds, the Investment Company Institute reported Thursday.
The big pullout came in the week ended January 5, 2011. In the previous two weeks, such funds lost $453 million then gained $456 million, essentially treading water.
The $4.2 billion resumes the long downward trend, since the May 6 Flash Crash. That brought a pullout that is now on the brink of crossing $100 billion, all told.
There are bright spots. The only other fund category to drop: municipal bond funds, which lost $2.1 billion.
Foreign equity funds picked up $2.4 billion, taxable bond funds $2.7 billion and hybrid funds $549 million.
