(Bloomberg) -- Treasury investors are rushing for the exit in the world’s biggest long-maturity ETF ahead of two key central-bank decisions this week.

With solid economic growth pressuring bond yields and sapping demand for safe assets, the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (ticker TLT) fell again on Monday for eight straight declines. That’s the longest losing streak since its 2002 inception. For five weeks in a row, the fund has seen outflows, with withdrawals totaling $2 billion over the stretch. 

It’s a reversal of sorts from last year when traders sank billions into TLT on the conviction that the beaten-up asset class would yield bumper returns down the road. 

The retreat comes as signs of euphoria surface in risky assets, with funds tracking stocks and cryptocurrencies luring money at a pace never seen before. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to update its monetary projections this week as traders fixate on whether enduring inflation pressures will force central bankers to change their outlook for upcoming interest-rate cuts this year. 

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan is expected to move away from its negative interest rate policy and its yield-curve control framework. 

“People are bracing for ‘higher for longer,’” said Dave Lutz, head of ETFs at JonesTrading. “Economic data continues to point to a hotter economy and stickier inflation. With BOJ set to end negative rates, it could send their yields higher and drag the US yields in sympathy.” 

Treasury yields climbed Monday, with 10-year rates reaching the highest level since November as economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. became the latest to project fewer interest-rate cuts this year. Swap contracts that predict decisions by the central bank now priced in rate reductions of 70 basis points for 2024, compared with roughly 160 basis points in December. 

Read more: US Two-Year Yield at 2024 High as Goldman Resets Fed Outlook

Down more than 3% over eight sessions, the size of TLT’s decline is far from unprecedented. What’s notable is the loss coincided with persistent outflows, a departure from the last three years, when investors kept buying the dip, pouring $40 billion of fresh money into the fund despite a slump that erased about half its value. 

“To me this was like $40 billion of money that went in tactically betting that the Fed would break something and then hanging on hoping the Fed would cut rates, and neither happened,” said Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “Some people started bailing and we could see a lot more.” 

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