Investors piled into equity funds ahead of Fed rate cut, US-China trade deal

(Reuters) -Global equity funds attracted massive investments in the week to October 29 ahead of an anticipated interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve and a trade deal between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Investors accumulated a net $10.58 billion worth of global equity funds, extending their recent run of inflows into a sixth straight week, data from LSEG Lipper showed.

The Fed reduced interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, thanks to easing inflationary pressure. The Fed Chair Jerome Powell, however, pushed back against another rate cut in December due to a lack of federal government data.

Trump on Thursday said he had agreed to reduce tariffs on Chinese imports in exchange for Beijing cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade, resuming U.S. soybean purchases and keeping rare earth exports flowing.

Asian equity funds witnessed the sharpest weekly inflow since January 2024 to the tune of $7.19 billion, with roughly $5.46 billion flowing into Japan.

U.S. and European funds also secured $1.81 billion and $137 million inflows, respectively.

Sectoral funds had a mixed set of investments as tech and utilities saw inflows of $2.54 billion and $504 million, while investors ditched gold and precious metals equity funds of $1.51 billion.

Global bond funds recorded weekly inflows for the 28th straight week as these funds gained a net $11.84 billion in weekly inflows.

Investors pumped nearly $3.14 billion into euro-denominated bond funds, in line with the prior week's $3.33 billion net purchase.

Government bond funds and high-yield bond funds also saw a significant $2.84 billion and $1.66 billion weekly net purchase.

Weekly net investments in money market funds, meanwhile, eased to $3.26 billion from $13.56 billion in the prior week.

Gold and precious metals commodity funds saw a net $4.17 billion weekly outflow, the first net sale in 10 weeks.

In emerging markets, investors snapped up equity funds to the tune of $2.23 billion, the most for a week since September 24, but they shed bond funds worth $437 million, data for a combined 28,822 funds showed.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Hugh Lawson)