Funds flow tracker TrimTabs is reporting discouraging news for equities, saying investors continued their flight to the perceived safety of bonds in the first quarter while corporate insiders are withdrawing support for their own stocks as buybacks fell to a three-year low.
In a press release on separately managed accounts, TrimTabs noted that net inflows of $34 billion in the first quarter reversed outflows of $104.6 billion in the two previous quarters.
But the direction of U.S. equity assets has been decidedly negative for three quarters running, with $158.1 billion leaving U.S. stocks, more than twice the $61 billion in assets moving into bonds ($31.9 billion) and foreign equities ($28.9 billion). Fixed income and foreign stocks attracted the most assets in the most recent quarter, but the accent was heavily on bonds, which attracted $59 billion—more than three times the level of foreign equities ($16 billlion).