The rally in stocks to start 2023 hasn’t kept investors from pulling billions out of U.S. equity funds to start the year. But there’s a hitch. While roughly $31 billion has left U.S. stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the past six weeks, according to Refinitiv Lipper data, roughly the same amount has poured into bonds.
“For a lot of people, this is their first go at getting into bonds,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, by phone on Monday. “There are a lot of people convinced that short term you are going to get some yield here.” U.S. bond funds saw $32 billion of inflows on the year through Feb. 8 (see chart), a huge shift from their $18 billion of outflows ove …