The Market Is Becoming A Stock-Picker (And Likes Energy)

The latest client flow data from Bank of America unveils some unique trends happening in the volatile market. In a new report, analyst Jill Carey breaks down the flow data and what it means for traders.

Despite the market weakness, Bank of America’s flow data indicates that clients were net buyers of stocks in each of the first three weeks of the year. Last week, institutional clients were doing the majority of the buying, and hedge funds were net buyers for the fifth straight week. Private clients, on the other hand, have been net sellers for the past two weeks.

“Private clients have notably been buying single stocks but selling ETFs for the last three weeks, the first time this has occurred since 2009,” Carey adds.

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The ETF selling pressure can be clearly seen in the graph below, which also shows that private clients have been buying Energy and Financial stocks so far this year and selling Technology and Industrials.

So far this year, the Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) XLE and the Select Sector Financial Slct Str SPDR Fd XLF are down 8.7 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.