After some down time, we are bringing back weekly analysis of the U.S. fund market. In this weekly piece I’ll be touching on market events, FTSE Russell index performance, and overall trends using LSEG Lipper data—focusing more on the fixed income fund market. The general layout will go as follows: a recap of relevant macro events, followed by a table summary of the latest fund market data, then lastly some commentary. The commentary will either focus on the overall weekly numbers or a specific classification/macro-group trends. If there are any follow-up questions on the data/products presented or specific insights you’d

The data in the article below is sourced from Lipper’s Global Fund Flows application. GFF can be found on LSEG Workspace (“FundFlows”). During LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week that ended April 17, 2024, investors were overall net redeemers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the fourth week in five, removing an astonishing $143.5 billion—the largest weekly outflow since the week ending September 16, 2009. Alternative investments (+$117 million) was the only group to attract inflows since last Thursday. Money market funds (-$118.5 billion), equity funds (-$19.5 billion), taxable bond funds (-$3.2 billion), municipal bond funds (-$1.5 billion),

Fixed income funds realized a return of positive 0.50% on average during the first quarter of 2024, marking their second straight quarterly gain and fifth plus-side quarterly return in their last six. Outside of Emerging Markets Hard Currency Debt Funds which saw nice gains thanks to a strong dollar, floating-rate and higher yielding funds were the top performers during the first quarter of 2024.

The data in the article below is sourced from Lipper’s Global Fund Flows application. GFF can be found on LSEG Workspace (“FundFlows”). During LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week that ended April 10, 2024, investors were overall net redeemers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the third week in four, removing a net $29.7 billion. Taxable bond funds (+$6.0 billion), alternative investments (+$571 million), and tax-exempt bond funds (+$415 million) reported weekly inflows. Money market funds (-$35.3 billion), equity funds (-$1.0 billion), commodities funds (-$207 million), and mixed-assets funds (-$168 million) suffered outflows over the week. Money market

  Equity mutual funds and ETFs celebrated their fifth quarterly gain in six—with the average equity fund (+6.92%) posting its second straight quarterly plus-side return. LSEG Lipper’s U.S. Diversified Equity Funds (+9.07%) outpaced the other seven equity and mixed-assets macro-classifications for the first quarter since Q2 2023. Q1 2024 had actively managed equity funds (+7.09%) outperform their passive (+5.95%) counterparts by 114 basis points (bps), marking the fourth largest quarterly outperformance by active management since the start of 2013. In this segment, I provide a market recap plus highlight the quarterly and monthly performance results for conventional equity mutual funds

Fixed income funds realized a return of positive 6.06% on average during the fourth quarter of 2023, marking a rebound from their third quarter loss (-1.70%). Fixed income funds have now reported four quarterly gains in the last five. Tax-exempt bond funds (+6.79%) outperformed taxable bond funds (+5.81%) for the first time all year as they recorded their second largest quarterly return on record, trailing only Q3 2009 (+7.73%). Despite the nearly 100 basis point (bps) outperformance, taxable bond funds returned their highest quarterly return since Q2 2020. Summary: All 51 Lipper fixed income classifications ended the fourth quarter with

The data sourced in the article below is derived from Lipper’s Global Fund Flows application which may differ slightly from the Lipper US Fund Flow data due to timing and methodology. This new application can be found on LSEG Workspace. During LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week that ended September 13, 2023, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the third straight week, adding a net $18.7 billion. Equity funds (+$9.6 billion), money market funds (+$9.4 billion), and taxable bond funds (+$961 million) registered inflows, while alternatives funds (-$637 million), tax-exempt bond funds (-$306

During LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week that ended August 30, 2023, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the third week in four, adding a net $7.5 billion. Equity funds (-$4.6 billion) and taxable bond funds (-$217 million) observed weekly outflows, while money market funds (+$11.9 billion) and tax-exempt bond funds (+$408 million) registered inflows. Index Performance At the close of LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week, U.S. broad-based equity indices reported positive returns—the Russell 2000 (+1.77%), Nasdaq (+2.17%), S&P 500 (+1.78%), and DJIA (+1.21%) were all in the black. This was the second consecutive

During LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week that ended July 19, 2023, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the second week in three, adding in a net of $2.9 billion. Equity funds (-$2.3 billion) observed weekly outflows, while money market funds (+$902 million), tax-exempt bond funds (+$1.0 billion), and taxable bond funds (+$3.2 billion) registered inflows on the week. Index Performance At the close of LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week, U.S. broad-based equity indices reported positive returns—the Russell 2000 (+2.66%), Nasdaq (+3.15%), S&P 500 (+2.09%), and DJIA (+2.08%) were all in the black. This

  Fixed income funds realized a return of positive 0.23% on average during the second quarter of 2023, marking the third straight positive quarterly performance. The last time fixed income funds registered three straight quarters of positive performance was from Q2 2020 to Q4 2020. Of the 51 Lipper fixed income classifications, only 23 ended the second quarter with gains—down from 50 last quarter. Flexible Income Funds, Specialty Fixed Income Funds, Emerging Markets Hard Currency Debt Funds, and Ultra-Short Obligation Funds were the only Lipper classifications to outperform their first quarter returns. Summary: Taxable bond funds (+0.28%) outperformed tax-exempt bond

Lipper assigns funds both capitalization and size based on our quantitative Holdings-Based Classification (HBC) model. We’ve written about this in the past (Overview & Expansion). The results of this model help build peer groups based on specific metrics of the underlying holdings, thus creating our 12 domestic HBC classifications. These 12 classifications are the combinations of four size buckets (large, multi, mid, and small) paired with three style assignments (growth, core, and value). 2022 was a tough year for the majority of asset classes, but growth stocks suffered greatly. Lipper’s Large-Cap Growth Funds (-31.51%), Multi-Cap Growth Funds (-32.92%), Mid-Cap Growth

The global economy remains resilient and the tightening of monetary policy by most central banks could start to bear fruit, while inflation begins to move towards target levels. But what does this mean for equities and bonds? Read our Mid-year investment outlook as we explore the challenges and opportunities dominating markets. Key takeaways: The 60/40 portfolio: Following the unusual correlation of equities and bonds in 2022, is the 60/40 portfolio a strategy that is still fit for purpose? Value versus growth investing: Are both strategies just as popular as each other for identifying stocks with the potential for strong returns while minimising