Our Privacy Statment & Cookie Policy
All LSEG websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.
For the first month in three, investors were net purchasers of mutual fund assets, injecting $82.6 billion into the conventional funds business (excluding ETFs, which are reviewed in the section below) for May. However, the headline numbers are slightly misleading. Investors became very risk averse after learning about the deterioration of the U.S. and China trade talks and late month news that President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on Mexico. For the fourth month in a row, stock & mixed-asset funds witnessed net outflows (-$14.7 billion) for May. With the Treasury yield curve shifting down for the month, the fixed income funds macro-group witnessed net inflows for the fifth month in a row, taking in $15.3 billion. And for the first month in three, money market funds (+$82.1 billion) witnessed net inflows.
For the first month in four, ETFs overall witnessed net outflows, handing back $10.4 billion for May. Authorized participants (APs—those investors who actually create and redeem ETF shares) were net redeemers of stock & mixed-asset ETFs for the first month in four, redeeming $16.7 billion from equity ETF coffers. But for the seventh straight month, they were net purchasers of bond ETFs—injecting $6.2 billion for May. APs were net sellers of three of the five equity-based ETF macro-classifications—Sector Equity ETFs (-$6.8 billion), USDE ETFs (-$5.9 billion), and World Equity ETFs (-$4.0 billion)—while being net purchasers of Alternatives ETFs (+$22 million) and Mixed-Asset ETFs (+$2 million).
In this segment, I highlight the May fund-flows results for both types of investment vehicles.
Highlights
Click here to download the May 2019 FundFlows Insight Report: Fund Investors Turn Risk Averse In May.