U.S. equity funds witnessed their fourth weekly outflow in five weeks in the week to Feb. 5, driven by heightened geopolitical risks from President Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs on China and investor wariness over weaker-than-expected earnings from key technology companies.
Investors divested U.S. equity funds worth a net $10.71 billion in their largest weekly sales since Dec. 18, 2024, data from LSEG Lipper showed.
Disappointing cloud revenue growth at Alphabet and its hefty investments in artificial intelligence, along with weaker data center sales forecasts from Advanced Micro Devices, compounded investor concerns about substantial artificial intelligence investments.
U.S. investors pulled a massive $6.44 billion out of large-cap equity funds, the most for a week since Dec. 18. They also ditched small-cap, multi-cap and mid-cap funds worth $2.02 billion, $1.12 billion and $335 million, respectively.
Sectoral funds, however, attracted $1.2 billion, the third weekly inflow in a row, with financials and consumer discretionary drawing $1.01 billion and $907 million, respectively, leading the way.
Investors, meanwhile, acquired safer money market funds worth a net $39.61 billion following $35.13 billion worth of net sales in the prior week.
Bond funds remained popular for the fifth week in a row as they attracted a sharp $9.22 billion worth of inflows during the week.
U.S. general domestic taxable fixed income funds, short-intermediate investment-grade funds and loan participation funds were popular as they gained a significant $4.64 billion, $3.31 billion and $2.93 billion, respectively, in inflows.
Shares of Titan America rose 1.25% in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange, giving the Belgium-based cement producer a market capitalization of $2.99 billion.
The company’s shares opened at $16.2 apiece, compared with the IPO price of $16.
The cement producer, together with its parent company Titan Cement International, raised $384 million by selling 24 million shares in its initial public offering, within the targeted range it had marketed earlier.
“The IPO gives us more firepower with the cash that comes out of the primary sales and on top of that now we have the hard currency of a U.S. public company, so we have the opportunity to deploy this capital,” Titan America CEO Bill Zarkalis told Reuters.
“We have the skills, experience and capability to look into value creative opportunities so that we maximize top-line growth, margin expansion and return on capital,” Zarkalis added.
Investor enthusiasm for new stock offerings has been buoyed by expectations of a more business-friendly regulatory climate under U.S. President Donald Trump, betting on a potential easing of restrictions that could spur a wave of fresh IPOs.
Swiss cement giant Holcim said last year it would spin off its North American business into a separate U.S.-listed entity, while German-listed Heidelberg Materials has also considered listing in the country.
Titan America supplies heavy building materials and services to resellers and construction contractors in the eastern region of the United States.
The company recorded a net income of $129.5 million on revenue of $1.24 billion in the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with a net income of $109.8 million on revenue of $1.19 billion a year earlier.
Titan Cement International will control 87% of the voting power after the IPO.
Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are the lead underwriters for the offering.
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