U.S. equity fund inflows rise on earnings optimism, AI boost

Specialist Anthony Matesic works the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

U.S. equity funds attracted the largest weekly net investment in four weeks through April 22, driven by upbeat corporate earnings results and optimism over AI-linked business deals.

Investors bought a net US$27.98 billion of U.S. equity funds in their largest weekly purchase since roughly $36.94 billion net acquisitions in the week through March 25.

Upbeat earnings from major banks and food and beverage company PepsiCo boosted risk appetite. LSEG data for 134 S&P 500 companies showed that first-quarter results for 82 per cent of companies topped their mean analyst estimates.

Amazon on Monday said that it will invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic, bolstering demand for the technology sector funds.

Sectoral funds drew $7.1 billion, a third successive weekly inflow, with tech, industrial and financial sectors gaining $5.03 billion, $994 million and $991 million, respectively and leading the weekly net purchases.

Investors also pumped $1.47 billion in U.S. value funds and $4.92 billion - the biggest amount in five weeks - in growth funds.

Demand for bond funds revived after a $841 million of weekly net sales as these funds attracted approximately $3.4 billion of inflows in the week.

General domestic taxable fixed income funds, short-to-intermediate investment-grade funds and municipal debt funds saw net purchases of $1.91 billion, $1.28 billion and $1.02 billion, respectively, in the week.

Investors, meanwhile, ditched money market funds of a net $16.1 billion, after roughly $177.72 billion of net sales the prior week.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra, Editing by Louise Heavens)