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 gains—only 11 posted a plus-side return in Q3.
- Passive funds returned a positive 6.19% compared to active’s 6.05% gain over the last three months.
- The top-performing Lipper classifications were Alternative Currency Strategies funds (+18.95%), Emerging Markets Hard Currency Debt funds, (+8.75%), and New York Municipal Debt funds (+8.56%).
Click here or the Download Full Report link in the upper right-hand column of this page to download the Fourth Quarter 2023 FundMarket Insight Report: TAX-EXEMPT BOND FUNDS HIT SECOND HIGHEST QUARTERLY RETURN AS FIXED INCOME REBOUNDS FROM Q3 LOSS
LSEG Lipper delivers data on more than 330,000 collective investments in 113 countries. Find out more.
Join a growing community of asset managers and stay up to date with the latest research from Refinitiv and partners to help you inform your investment decisions. Follow our Asset Management LinkedIn showcase page.
