Foreign investors dump $6.5 billion of U.S. equities in a week

LONDON (Reuters) - Foreign investors dumped $6.5 billion of U.S. equities in the five trading sessions ending Wednesday, BofA Global Research said on Friday, as tariff induced turmoil gripped markets.

Safe haven U.S. Treasuries saw their biggest ever weekly inflow of $18.8 billion, while investors withdrew $21.3 billion from active equity funds and a record $15.9 billion from high yield bond funds, BofA said in its weekly round up of flows in and out of world markets.

Equity funds actually saw inflows of $48.9 billion, but BofA said "liquidation events" such as the collapse of Lehman Brothers or during the spread of Covid, "cause ETF share creation to facilitate stock sales and shorting."

(Reporting by Alun John, editing by Karin Strohecker)