Stock Investors Go ‘All-In' With $6 Billion Bet on S&P 500 ETFs

(Bloomberg) -- With U.S. stocks at record highs, investors are betting that the party will continue.

The three largest exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500 Index took in a combined $6.2 billion last week, just as the benchmark topped 3,000 for the first time, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Of the more than 1,600 U.S.-listed equity ETFs, these three -- known by their tickers SPY, IVV, and VOO -- received more cash than any other funds in one of their best weeks of 2019.

Investors are “all-in on equities,” Steven DeSanctis, a U.S. stocks strategist for Jefferies wrote in a Monday report. Much of the cash that flowed into ETFs last week went to large-cap funds designed as core holdings, he wrote.

The sizable inflows come as debate rages over whether or not U.S. stocks can extend their more than 20% return this year. A rate cut from the Federal Reserve later this month is viewed by markets as virtually certain, potentially supporting equities. But there’s a creeping concern about the slowing of both the global and domestic economy, just as companies are set to post their first profit decline since 2016.

The S&P 500 was little changed as of 10:56 a.m. in New York on Monday, after Citigroup Inc. became the first major bank to report second-quarter earnings.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Ponczek in New York at sponczek2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Rachel Evans, Brendan Walsh

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