LIVE MARKETS-BofA clients cautious while stepping around Jackson Hole

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BOFA CLIENTS CAUTIOUS WHILE STEPPING AROUND JACKSON HOLE

BofA Securities equity and quant strategist Jill Carey Hall says that last week, with the S&P 500 index .SPX gaining about 0.3%, clients sold U.S. equities, with outflows from single stocks (-$1.6 billion) for a second week vs slight inflows into equity ETFs ($0.4 billion), despite Fed Chair Powell's dovish speech at Jackson Hole.

Large caps captured inflows, while small- and mid-caps saw outflows.

"Hedge funds were the biggest sellers of equities (based on aggregated stock + ETF flows) and have sold for the last two weeks. Private clients were also sellers for the first time in 8 wks, as a 3rd week of single stock selling (biggest sale YTD) outpaced ETF buying. Institutional clients were buyers for the 4th consecutive week," writes Hall in her note.

She adds that corporate client buybacks ramped up, but were below typical seasonal levels for the eighth straight week.

Hall says that clients sold stocks in nine of 11 sectors, led by Tech, Staples, and Financials.

Communication Services saw the largest inflows, followed by Industrials.

Real Estate has the longest recent selling streak, with outflows for the last 12 weeks.

In terms of ETFs, Hall says clients bought both Value and Growth ETFs (along with Dividend ETFs).

She notes that it was the fourth week that flows skewed toward Value over Growth, saying that, "We see the Fed, macro and flows as positive catalysts for Value."

Clients snapped up ETFs in seven of the 11 sectors, led by Discretionary, Real Estate and Materials.

Healthcare and Tech suffered the biggest outflows.

(Terence Gabriel)

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