Investors pull more than $ 20 b from stocks, keep piling into bonds: BAML

LONDON (Reuters): Global equities have seen outflows of $ 20.5 billion in the past week as “trade deal trauma” pushed more money into bonds, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday, the latest sign of how growing global trade tensions are roiling financial markets. 

The cash leaving stocks in the week to May 8 was the third biggest outflow so far this year, the bank said, and came as US President Donald Trump threatened further import tariffs on Chinese goods, ratcheting up the prolonged trade spat between the world’s two largest economies.

US equities had outflows of $ 14 billion, the biggest since Jan. 30, the bank’s strategists said, citing data from flow tracking specialist EPFR.

Investors, seeking shelter from trade dispute, kept pumping in money into bonds, which saw inflows of $ 7.3 billion, making it the eighteenth straight week of inflows.