By Deborah Levine NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- High-grade mutual funds saw the biggest outflow of funds in the latest week, the fourth time so far this year that the asset class has seen outflows, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said. High-grade funds lost $2.5 billion, according to data from EPFR. "Negative net flows in high-grade funds tend to follow large sell-offs in rates, which has occurred since the beginning of this month," the analysts wrote in a note distributed Friday. Also potentially affecting fund flows, fewer corporate-bond sales are expected for the rest of the year. "Now entering the holiday season, we do not expect any significant further issuance until January," they said. Companies have sold $39.1 billion in bonds this month, according to Informa Global Markets. That includes a $1 billion sale by IBM (IBM 144.55, -0.17, -0.12%) , $2.6 billion from Occidental Petroleum (OXY 94.84, +0.04, +0.04%) and $250 million from Brown Forman (BF.A 69.95, +0.26, +0.37%) . Companies have issued $961.6 billion in debt this year, the second-busiest year on record but down about 24% from last year Informa said.

Source