Despite a week of market chaos brought on by the Federal Reserve’s stance, Bank of America clients leaned toward risk, sparking massive inflows into stocks. and traded funds.

Data released Tuesday showed BofA clients invested nearly $10 billion in U.S. assets, the second-largest inflow since 2008 and the largest since January 2017.

Jill Carey Hall, a Bank of America analyst, noted a seven-week streak of inflows and said that, as in the previous five weeks, clients favored both individual stocks and ETFs, with greater inflows directed toward individual stocks .

The four-week moving average of receipts rose to $6.36 billion, the highest on record.

This appetite for risk occurred even as the S&P 500, as it followed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), fell 2% for the week, with Wednesday’s volatility rising to its highest level since 2018.

While presiding over the Fed Jerome Powell‘s the hawkish rhetoric rattled the marketsthe history of the flows underscores a crucial trend: investors remain willing to buy the dip aggressively.

A closer look at the data revealed divergent behaviors between groups of investors.

Institutional clients, often seen as market favorites, were net buyers for the third week in a row, driving the biggest four-week inflows in nine months.

Bank of America analysts noted that this trend often follows the October mutual fund tax loss selling season. Retail investors also joined the buying spree, marking their second consecutive week of inflows.

In contrast, hedge funds remained sellers for the second week in a row.

Private clients, traditionally big sellers in December due to tax loss harvesting, were less aggressive this year, with their individual stock selling activity “slightly less than the December average,” according to Hall.

In particular, while private clients flocked to ETFs, corporates continued share buybacks at a pace that is on track to set a record high for the year when measured as a percentage of S&P 500 market cap.

Breaking down flows by sector, technology stocks emerged as the top performers, with turnover of $4.3 billion.

Industrial stocks followed with their biggest inflows since February 2022, while consumer staples also saw robust buying.

Conversely, health care and consumer discretionary stocks led the departures, with Health Care posting net sales in four of the past five weeks.

ETF flows painted a similar picture, with technology and industrials ETFs dominating inflows, while financials and real estate saw the largest outflows.

The story continues