Quiet Week for Equities Doesn’t Stop Equity Fund Redemptions

Equity markets were flat for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, April 27. The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved only a little more than 100 points between its highest and lowest closes and finished the week down 55 points (or minus 0.3%). This past week equity exchange-traded fund (ETF) authorized participants were responsible for sending about $3.2 billion into SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) and $487 million into iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) while pulling $675 million from SPDR Consumer Staples (XLP). As is their habit these days, equity mutual fund investors pulled $4.5 billion (net) from their funds and brought the year-to-date equity mutual fund outflows to $18.3 billion.

High yield fund investors were of different minds this week: High yield mutual funds saw net inflows of $555 million, while high yield ETFs saw net outflows of $258 million. Bond ETFs gathered $260 million of net inflows. The week’s biggest individual bond ETF net inflows belonged to iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond (AGG, +$242 million).

Municipal bond mutual fund investors added a whopping $1.1 billion net to their accounts, which was the highest amount since the last week of 2015. As seasonal tax payments ebbed, money market funds saw net inflows of $5.0 billion for the week.