Global capital flows have changed significantly! The "Anthropic Storm" has devastated technology value stocks, and bond funds have become the "new safe haven".

The latest statistics show that despite strong financial reports from U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly (LLY.US) and AI server leader Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI.US) providing some support, the global funds' panic about software possibly being completely disrupted by AI triggered a historical level of massive selling. This rapid decline led to rare large-scale selling of high valuation tech stocks and momentum beta strategies, causing a significant decrease in demand for U.S. stock funds in the week ending February 4. According to Lipper's latest statistics, global investors only bought about $5.58 billion in U.S. stock funds in the week, a sharp decrease of about 48% from the net inflow of $10.82 billion in the previous week. The chart above summarizes the weekly flow data of U.S. stock, bond, and money market funds. Earlier in January, Anthropic, the "rival of OpenAI," launched a collaborative AI programming tool with significant engineering innovation value called Claude Cowork. This tool is designed to extend the functionality of AI agents from programming terminals to general office scenarios like file management and software interaction, exacerbating market fears of AI agents completely disrupting the SaaS software industry. The two main culprits behind the global software stock market crash starting this week were a new AI tool launched by Anthropic, an efficient AI agent capable of performing multiple document tasks, including tracking compliance issues and reviewing legal documents, and Claude Opus 4.6, the latest tool that significantly surpassed the GPT-5.2 large model in fields such as AI programming, financial analysis, deep analysis of legal documents, and Office collaboration. After the update, financial analysis service provider FactSet plummeted 10% in the worst market day, while Thomson Reuters Corporation, S&P Global, Moody's Corporation, and Nasdaq Corporation all continued to drop, causing all three major U.S. stock indices to plunge. Specifically, U.S. large-cap stock funds unexpectedly recorded about $1.1 billion in net inflows, highlighting the market's continued bullish sentiment towards the Magnificent Seven - Alphabet Inc. Class C, NVIDIA Corporation, Apple Inc., and other blue-chip large-cap stocks. Mid-cap and small-cap stock funds in the U.S. saw outflows of approximately $1.59 billion and $1.67 billion, respectively. In terms of industry funds, investors injected $2.11 billion into the undervalued value sector, mainly industrial sectors, and $1.44 billion into the metals and mining sector, while withdrawing about $2.34 billion from the technology sector. This aligns with the global stock market trend of short-term portfolio reallocation under the backdrop of "technology/software impact," where funds are being withdrawn from high volatility/high uncertainty/high valuation sectors (technology) and reallocated to more tangible economic cycle/low valuation value/cyclical sectors. Additionally, other statistics show that U.S. bond funds saw significant net inflows for the fifth consecutive week, totaling $11.11 billion, with net investments of about $6.34 billion in short to medium-term investment-grade bond funds, the largest weekly inflow since at least 2022. In the same week, bond funds continued to see significant inflows, combined with the new data showing a huge net purchase of money market funds, indicating a shift in asset allocation towards cash/bonds under the trend of declining market risk appetite. Combining the global investors' growing shift towards value and cyclicality in stock funds, diverting some risk budget towards value industrial sectors (beneficiaries of AI and infrastructure/soft landing of the U.S. economy and tangible manufacturing supply chain) and metal mining (resources/inflation/cyclical allocation logic), this represents a massive rotation from high volatility momentum beta strategies, high valuation, and uncertainty to more visible value cash flow/stable fixed income/physical asset categories. Municipal bond funds and inflation-hedging bonds funds also attracted significant global net inflows of $2.38 billion and $1.34 billion, respectively. At the same time, U.S. money market funds recorded a net purchase of $83.09 billion, marking the largest net cash inflow since the week ending December 3, with $105.08 billion in net inflows.