MUTUAL FUND INVESTORS BACK AWAY FROM STOCKS.Byline: Edward Wyatt The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Mutual fund investors, who normally view market milestones as a signal to increase their buying, sharply slowed their new purchases of stock funds in the week after the Dow Jones industrial average Dow Jones Industrial Average The best known U.S. index of stocks. A price-weighted average of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks, primarily industrials including stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. first topped 6,000. As a result, cash inflows to equity mutual funds fell 93 percent in the week that ended Wednesday. They reached their lowest level since mid-July, when a sharp drop in stock prices caused shareholders to withdraw $4 billion from stock funds in a single week. AMG AMG All Music Guide (music website) AMG All Media Guide (group of media websites) AMG All Movie Guide (Movie website) AMG Arzneimittelgesetz (German Law) Data Services of Arcata, Calif., reported Friday that net cash flows to stock funds fell to $237.5 million in the week that ended Wednesday, from $3.5 billion in the previous week. Since early August, a four-week moving average of cash inflows to stock funds has stayed above $2.3 billion. In part, the sudden pullback Pullback A falling back of a price from its peak. This type of price movement might be seen as a brief reversal of the prevailing upward trend, signaling a slight pause in upward momentum. in new stock-fund investments might reflect nervousness about the disparate strength in large- and small-cap stocks. While the Dow industrials headed higher in the days after Oct. 14, when the Dow first closed above 6,000, the Nasdaq composite index Nasdaq Composite Index An index that indicates price movements of securities in the over-the-counter market. It includes all domestic common stocks in the Nasdaq System (approximately 5,000 stocks) and is weighted according to the market value of each listed weakened weak·en tr. & intr.v. weak·ened, weak·en·ing, weak·ens To make or become weak or weaker. weak  en·er n. as technology stocks declined.
In fact, emerging-growth stock funds, which invest in stocks of young, small companies, suffered net withdrawals of $569 million in the week that ended Wednesday. It was the group's worst week since the July market sell-off, AMG reported. Large-capitalization growth funds also suffered net redemptions last week of $81 million, a reversal of the previous week's net inflows of $754 million and a four-week moving average of inflows of $553 million. |
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