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Oct 31 (Reuters) - U.S. equity fund inflows cooled significantly in the week to October 29 as investors refrained from taking major bets in the lead-up to an anticipated Federal Reserve rate cut and a batch of earnings reports from big technology companies. Investors bought $1.81 billion worth of U.S. equity funds during the week, a sharp reduction from approximately $9.65 billion weekly net purchase the prior week, LSEG Lipper data showed. Sign up here. The Fed trimmed interest rates by 0.25% as expected on Wednesday but signaled it could keep rates steady in December in absence of data from the federal government. The U.S. large-cap equity funds segment attracted a second successive weekly inflow, to the tune of $1.57 billion. Mid-cap and small-cap funds, however, saw $1.65 billion and $1.44 billion weekly outflows, respectively. The technology sector, meanwhile, had a net $1.65 billion weekly inflow, the largest since October 1. In contrast, financials and consumer discretionary saw outflows of $662 million and $314 million, respectively. Investors bought $4.91 billion of U.S. bond funds as they extended the trend of inflows into a fourth straight week. They scooped up U.S. short-to-intermediate investment-grade funds and general domestic taxable fixed income funds of $1.72 billion and $1.47 billion, respectively, while divesting a net $1.23 billion worth of short-to-intermediate government and Treasury funds. Money market funds saw inflows for a second successive week, valued at a net $1.46 billion. Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Alison Williams
