(MONEY Magazine) – With the economy showing more signs of weakness, such as October's 0.4% drop in the index of leading indicators and November's tenth-of-a-point rise in unemployment, small investors have been shifting billions of dollars from risky growth stocks and junk bonds to such havens as government and municipal bonds and money-market funds. In November, the MONEY small Investor Index, which tracks the performance of the average individual's portfolio, rose $477 to $44,234. Stocks added $282, while cash rose $98 and bonds, $69. Over the past two months, most of the money that was pulled out of aggressive stock and bond funds has gone into safer income investments such as high-quality bond and money funds. The Investment Company Institute reported that in October, bond funds gained $1 billion, while money-market fund assets rose by $12.8 billion. The trend continued in November, with small investors favoring government, Ginnie Mae and municipal bond funds. Investors who have put new money into equities have tended to prefer growth and income and balanced funds, which hold mostly large stocks like those in the Dow Jones industrial average. Analysts think small investors are behaving prudently. ''By sticking with high-quality stocks and bonds,'' says Hugh Johnson, chief investment strategist at First Albany Corp. in Albany, N.Y., ''they are picking assets that would perform best if the economy does go into recession.''

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: NO CREDIT CAPTION: Big stocks vs. small stocks

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: NO CREDIT CAPTION: The yield curve

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: Sources: Dow Jones, Lipper Analytical Services, Standard & Poor's and Frank Russell & Co. CAPTION: Stock market data

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: Source: Salomon Bros., the Bond Buyer CAPTION: Bond yields