Wall Street warns trading boom is losing steam

The trade that carried Wall Street through an AI-fueled rally is running out of road. Investors pulled $14.2 billion from US equity funds over just three weeks in mid-September, the largest single withdrawal streak since January, according to data from EPFR Global. Bank of America strategists Jared Woodard and Michael Hartnett flagged the shift in a cautionary note, pointing to a market that is quietly losing the confidence that drove it to record highs just weeks earlier. From flood to trickle The numbers tell the story pretty bluntly. Global equity fund inflows averaged around $52 billion per week in July. By mid-September, that figure had collapsed to roughly $7 billion per week. The 30-year Treasury yield climbed to its highest level since June 2007, making the risk-free return on government bonds suddenly look a lot more attractive relative to stocks. Oil prices crossing $100 per barrel added another layer of pressure. Energy costs at that level feed directly into inflation expectations, which in turn reinforces the case for yields staying elevated. The S&P 500 managed to hold a narrow trading range near its record highs during this period. But beneath that stability, the ...