Here's a fun puzzle for you. What happens when Wall Street gets spooked? Usually, everyone runs for the exits. But last week, something more interesting happened. They did run—just not all in the same direction.

According to flow data from Bank of America covering March 16–20, institutional investors fled U.S. stocks at a pace not seen since the financial crisis. Single-stock outflows hit $8.3 billion. That's the fourth-largest weekly bleed since 2008. Add another $1.1 billion fleeing equity ETFs, and you get total outflows of $9.3 billion in just five days. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the broad market, fell 5.8% over that period.

So far, so scary. But here's the twist: while nine out of eleven sectors were getting dumped, one sector was being showered with money like a retirement party for a beloved CEO.

Technology stocks absorbed $4.6 billion in net inflows. That's not just a lot—it's the largest single-week figure Bank of America has ever recorded for the sector since it started tracking this data in 2008. As a percentage of the S&P 500 Technology market cap, it ranks as the 8th largest inflow ever.

Let's sit with that for a second. Everyone was selling everything, except they were buying Tech. And not just a little. A record amount.

The Sector Bloodbath (And The One Safe Harbor)

The selling was broad and deep. Financials led the outflows at $3.5 billion—and have now seen net selling every single week since January 1, without a single week of inflows. That's a remarkable streak of disdain. Consumer Discretionary (-$2.6 billion), Energy (-$1.8 billion), and Consumer Staples (-$1.7 billion) all registered record or near-record weekly outflows.

Meanwhile, Tech was the party everyone decided to crash. The move didn't come from retail investors chasing memes. It came from institutional clients—the same big money managers who were simultaneously dumping $11 billion in single stocks across the rest of the market. They had been selling Tech for five consecutive weeks before this sudden, dramatic reversal.

The table below lays out the stark contrast. A "Z-Score" is a statistical measure showing how unusual a data point is relative to history. A score above +2 or below -2 is generally considered significant. Tech's +4.73 is screamingly high, while sectors like Energy and Financials posted deeply negative scores.

Source: Bank of America

The Cast Of Characters: Who Was Doing What

Institutional clients were the main sellers, posting $11 billion in net outflows for the week—a sharp reversal after three straight weeks of net buying. Private clients added to the pressure, registering outflows for the second week in a row.

The contrarians in this story were hedge funds. They were net buyers to the tune of $1.8 billion, ending four straight weeks of selling. Their purchases were focused on single stocks, where they bought $2.7 billion, while trimming their equity ETF exposure by $900 million.

By market cap, large caps took the heaviest hit, with $7.7 billion in net outflows. Small and micro cap stocks have now been sold for eight consecutive weeks—the longest such streak in the current data window.

What Happens Next? A Quick Look At The History Books

So the smart money bought the dip in Tech in a huge way. Is that a good signal? History offers a clue.

Before last week, Bank of America clients had sold Technology stocks for five consecutive weeks. In the four prior instances since 2008 where clients reversed course and bought Tech after a selling streak of that length, something interesting happened. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) outperformed the broader S&P 500 by an average of 1.7 percentage points over the following month and 6.0 percentage points over the following three months.

It's also worth noting that, year to date, Technology remains the only sector with positive single stock flows among the bank's clients, at +$4.3 billion. Every other sector is in net outflow territory for 2026, led by Financials at a staggering -$17.5 billion.

The takeaway? When fear hits the market, it doesn't hit all sectors equally. Last week, it looked a lot like investors decided that if they had to park their money somewhere, it was going to be in Tech. They sold everything else to do it. Whether that faith is rewarded is a story for the next few months.