Investors yank $5.7 billion from U.S. stocks - most in 10 weeks

The flight out of U.S. stocks accelerated last week, with investors yanking $5.7 billion of domestic stock mutual funds.

The flight out of U.S. stocks picked up speed last week, as investors were left disappointed by the Federal Reserve's failure to take steps to stimulate the economy.

Investors yanked $5.7 billion out of U.S. stock mutual funds during the week ended Aug. 1, more than twice the amount pulled during the prior week, and the most since the week ended May 23. The outflow was also the fourth-biggest this year.

Investors spent most of last week waiting for the Fed and the European Central Bank to flood financial markets with stimulus measures to boost the global economy. But neither central bank came through.

The market was also roiled by a trading software snafu at Knight Capital Group (KCG) that sent numerous erroneous orders for NYSE-listed securities into the market. Nearly 150 companies were affected.

Related: Beware of investor complacency

Investors haven't shown much love for stocks at all this year. In fact, U.S. stock mutual funds have bled money for 21 of the last 23 weeks, and since the beginning of the year, investors have pulled more than $63 billion from U.S. stock mutual funds. By comparison, these funds lost in the neighborhood of $40 billion during the first seven  months of 2010 and 2011.

As they draw their money out of stocks, investors continue to plow into bond mutual funds, which raked in $5.1 billion in assets during the latest week.

Hybrid funds, which invest in both stocks and bonds, gained $630million last week. Taking the middle road has been good for hybrid funds, which have enjoyed inflows for much of 2011.