After a record year for the stock market, a stimulus package and advances in financial reform, the long freeze on stock spending that began in 2008 is showing signs of a thaw.

Long-term stock mutual funds have recorded net inflows of roughly $64 billion so far this year, more than double the total net stock fund flows for all of 2009, according to Strategic Insight, a fund research firm. At this point last year, stock funds' net inflows were negative.

The sharp increase in stock mutual funds has mirrored a rally in stocks themselves. Despite a sharp downswing in February, the S&P 500 index has climbed about 5.2% so far this year. Taken together, the data suggest investors have grown more comfortable with placing bets on equities.

I think that people s appetite for risk has increased, says Fred Dickson, senior vice president and chief market strategist at Davidson & Co. He added that investors have basically digested the crisis and that they appear more willing to invest in companies.

To be sure, the data from the first four months of the year may not necessarily reflect the investing climate for the next eight. Market watchers say the year typically begins on an upswing. The first quarter is usually the biggest quarter, says Marc Pado, chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald. That s where new commitments are made, so there s a seasonal adjustment that you might have to consider.

Still, the numbers suggest a renewed confidence among investors. Net inflows into stock and bond mutual funds combined reached nearly $200 billion during the first four months of 2010, marking the second time in history that inflows -- new sales minus investors redemptions out of funds -- had reached that level by May. (The first time was in 2007.)

Heading into this year, fear of risk had left many investors sitting on large amounts of cash earning lower yields in money-market funds, Pado says. As investors have grown more confident, analysts say they re getting hungrier for higher yields.

Improvements in key economic data also helped drive the shift, Dickson says. He cites pickups in industrial production and employment, as well as an uptick in personal household wealth.

Another factor could be investor fears about Europe and the turmoil in Greece, Pado says. Although the region s debt woes have weighed broadly on equity markets, investors who may have otherwise chosen euro-zone markets may be turning instead to U.S. funds, as dollar-denominated assets grow in appeal, he says.

Investors are still largely tepid about stocks compared with bonds. Bond mutual funds have recorded net inflows of about $136 billion so far this year, putting them on pace to exceed last year s record total, according to Strategic Insight.

Analysts say the fund allocation suggests investors want to participate more but are still more gun-shy about stocks than they are about bonds. The bias toward bond funds, which began in 2009, is likely to continue throughout the year as investors continue moving assets from money-market funds and bank accounts into bond funds to find higher yields, says Loren Fox, senior research analyst at Strategic Insight.