BOSTON – Mutual fund investors continued to put their money into bond investments rather than U.S. stocks last month, despite the market’s recent gains.

But that distaste for stocks stayed at home, as U.S. investors added money to overseas stock funds.

Bond funds attracted more than $22 billion in net cash flow during October, while a net of nearly $2.6 billion flowed out of U.S. stock funds, the research firm Strategic Insight said Wednesday. Yet that $2.6 billion was less than one-fifth of the $15 billion that exited U.S. stock funds in September.

One possible reason? Investors warmed up a bit after the Standard & Poor’s 500 index posted its best September since 1939, surging 9 percent. The gains continued last month, when the S&P 500 rose more than 3 percent.

Even then, last month investors extended a roughly three-year trend of pulling more cash out of U.S. stock funds than they’ve put in. Much of that money exiting stock funds has gone into bonds.

“We are unlikely to see broad demand for equity funds until we see sustained job growth and other signs that the global economy, especially the U.S., is on surer footing,” said Loren Fox, an analyst with New York-based Strategic Insight.

 

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