If you've been paying attention to the hot stocks to watch this week, and over the last month or so, you may have noticed a somewhat dismaying trend: investors pulling large amounts of cash out of mutual funds. There has been an awful lot of profit-taking lately, and it's contributing to the instability of a market that's awfully volatile already. As Rob Lenihan, a reporter for theStreet.com noted, "Equity funds saw $12.25 billion walk out the door the week ended Wednesday, net of new purchases. That was up from $10.31 billion the previous week, according to TrimTabs Investment Research of Santa Rosa, Calif. Investors pulled a net $8.9 billion from funds that invest primarily in U.S. stocks, down from $9.58 billion the previous week. They pulled a net $3.35 billion out of funds that invest primarily in non-U.S. stocks, up from $728 million the previous week." This disturbing trend should figure in anyone's stock investment research when you're looking for hot stocks to watch and free stock market quotes. I don't know about you, but all of this money being taken out of U.S. markets makes me nervous. I think we're about to see the onset of a serious recession, and I'm starting to feel the early stages of panic. I hope that my stock invesment research next week is more reassuring.
