For the month of May, investors injected some $167.5 billion into the mutual fund business (including conventional funds and ETFs) based on preliminary numbers. However, investors remained on the fence, injecting almost half of that sum into Money Market Funds (+$84.81 billion). Of the long-term assets, all three asset classes attracted net new money in May, with equity funds attracting $41.1 billion, taxable bond funds taking in $34.6 billion, and municipal bond funds receiving $6.9 billion. During the month the broad-based U.S. indices hit new record highs, but remained range bound as investors wrestled with the dichotomy between strong Q1

The Lipper Loan Participation Funds classification—including both conventional mutual funds and ETFs—has seen a massive influx of flows since the start of the year compared to its historical average. Total estimated net flows for March were $5.8 billion, representing the second largest March inflows to date. Q1 2021 estimated net inflows totaled $14.0 billion, equating to the classification’s third largest start to a calendar year of all time. Over the past two weeks, Lipper Loan Participation Funds have drawn in more than $2 billion alone and have been net positive in weekly flows for 14 straight weeks (check out the

Funds in Refinitiv Lipper’s municipal debt peer groups (including both mutual funds and ETFs) had net positive flows of $614 million for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, October 14. This is the continuation of a long-term trend for tax-exempt bond funds as they’ve now taken in net new money in 22 of the last 23 weeks. This has resulted in the group growing their coffers by $43.5 billion since the end of the first quarter. As could be expected (and is illustrated in the chart below), the overall net inflows were dominated by funds in the national municipal groups (+$41.2

Funds in Refinitiv Lipper’s Inflation-Protected Bond (TIPS) classification (including both mutual funds and ETFs) took in $305 million of net new money for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, October 7. These results marked the group’s sixteenth straight week of net positive flows which have produced a best-ever quarterly net inflow of $13.4 billion during the third quarter. This number shattered the previous record inflow of $8.2 billion which occurred during the second quarter of 2009 (Refinitiv Lipper began tracking flows data on TIPS funds during the third quarter of 2002). TIPS is an acronym for Treasury inflation-protected securities. As its

Funds in Refinitiv Lipper’s Science & Technology (tech sector) classification (including both mutual funds and ETFs) suffered net outflows of $1.3 billion for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, September 23. This was the tech sector fund group’s fifth largest one-week net outflow in its history (Refinitiv Lipper began tracking fund flows data in 1992). As could be expected from this peer group, its performance (both from a fund flows and total return perspective) has mirrored that of the technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite Index. Similar to the majority of fund asset groups, tech sector funds were hit hard when the impact of

Funds in Refinitiv Lipper’s Core Bond classification (including both mutual funds and ETFs) took in $1.6 billion of net new money for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, September 16. The Core Bond Funds peer group has rebounded strongly from the COVID-19 induced slump that it experienced (as did most fund asset groups) at the tail end of the first quarter. After suffering $44.0 billion in net negative flows during Q1 (its worst quarterly net outflow ever), the peer group has bounced back with its two best quarterly net positive flows in its history, growing its coffers by $55.3 billion and

Funds in Refinitiv Lipper’s Corporate Debt-High Yield group had net positive flows of $1.5 billion for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, August 12. This was the sixth consecutive weekly net inflow for the group, and it comes on the heels of a $5.6 billion net outflow to start the third quarter, its fourth worst weekly net outflow ever (Refinitiv Lipper began tracking high yield fund flows data in 1992). After suffering steep net negative flows in Q1 (-$14.2 billion) as investors reacted to COVID-19, the group has rallied with its best quarterly net inflow ever in Q2 (+$41.5 billion). Its

Funds in Refinitiv Lipper’s technology sector classifications took in $1.3 billion of net new money for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, July 8. This was the thirteenth consecutive weekly net inflow for the group. This streak has driven the group to its third best quarterly net inflow result ever (+$15.6 billion) in Q2, trailing only the net intakes produced during the tech boom over 20 years ago when tech sector funds had net positive flows of $32.4 billion and $16.7 billion for Q1 2000 and Q4 1999, respectively. The net inflows into tech sector funds goes hand-in-hand with the price

Funds in Refinitiv Lipper’s Ultra-Short Obligations Funds (USO) classification took in $933 million of net new money for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, June 17. This group, like the majority of the taxable bond fund peer groups, has rebounded strongly from the flood of net outflows caused by investor reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. This week’s result was the eighth consecutive net inflows for USO funds, representing a total net intake of $13.0 billion. This comes on the heels of the group’s worst fund-flows quarter ever during Q1, when it suffered through $26.0 billion of net outflows. Investor demand has

Funds in Refinitiv Lipper’s Commodities Precious Metals Funds classification took in $1.5 billion of net new money for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, June 3. This was the peer group’s eleventh straight weekly net inflows, during which time it has experienced net positive flows of $17.4 billion. The magnitude of this streak is put into perspective when comparing it to the group’s previous largest annual net inflows, which occurred last year and was $10.3 billion. Funds in this peer group invest in either the actual physical commodity or commodity-linked derivatives—they don’t invest in common stocks. This data represents only ETFs

Funds in Refinitiv Lipper’s Emerging Markets equity peer group (including both mutual funds and ETFs) suffered net negative flows of $950 million for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, May 20. While we have seen some stabilization of fund-flows activity over the last several weeks as taxable bond funds, municipal debt funds, and even some sectors of the equity fund universe (healthcare and technology) have experienced net positive flows, it has not extended to the emerging markets equity funds group. Emerging markets funds have seen net money leave for 13 straight weeks (a record for the group) for total net outflows

Funds in Lipper’s corporate investment-grade debt peer groups (including both mutual funds and ETFs) took in $6.63 billion of net new money for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, May 6. This is the group’s third-best weekly net positive flow ever (Lipper started tracking this data in 1992) and was its fourth consecutive weekly net increase during which time it has had a total net intake of $16.8 billion. This positive run comes directly on the heels of a COVID-19 induced six-week streak of net outflows during which the group experienced its four-worst net outflows in its history (peaking at -$38.0