U.S. fund investors took nearly $6.9 billion from taxable bond funds during the latest week, withdrawing from debt markets at the fastest pace since February, Investment Company Institute (ICI) data showed on Wednesday.

Investors' sharp turn against debt comes after nearly three years of strong demand that added hundreds of billions of dollars to such products. Returns on many bond funds have been negative this year as the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates to head off inflation.

Higher rates and inflation hurt bond prices. The withdrawals, from mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), took place during the seven days through Oct. 24, according to the ICI's most recent data. Investors turned positive on stocks during the week, the trade group's data showed.

More than $3 billion rushed into stocks, the first positive net number for equity funds in five weeks.

That result seemed to reflect speculators' buying the dip as grim trading during the week erased the Dow Jones Industrial Average's and the S&P 500's gains for the year.

In another reversal from the prior three weeks, fund investors' interest in domestic stocks was stronger than for those outside the United States.