Investors are selling stock mutual funds -- again.
After a one-week respite, individual investors pulled a net $3.2 billion from U.S. stock funds and $610 million from foreign funds in the week ended Aug. 24, according to the Investment Company Institute.
The outflow was nowhere near the frenetic selling seen earlier this month when the stock market plunged amid worries about the economy. Fund owners dumped a net $34 billion in U.S. equity funds in the first two weeks of August.
Still, the renewed selling pressure underscores the skittishness among small investors about the market. They had added a net $1.3 billion into U.S. equity funds in the previous week.
More than that, departing investors missed out on an inchoate uptick in stock prices. Through Tuesday, the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 8% in the past week and a half, and the market is up again Wednesday morning.
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-- Walter Hamilton
Photo: A bank of phones at the New York Stock Exchange; Credit: Getty Images
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