Fund investors generally took risk off their portfolios for the Refinitiv Lipper fund-flows week ended March 8, 2023, as they awaited the release of February’s nonfarm payrolls report due out at the end of the week and began dissecting news coming from Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell’s semi-annual testimony before Congress, a report of better-than-expected first-time jobless claims, and rising Treasury rates. The two-year Treasury yield closed above the 5% mark for the first time since June 18, 2007, on Tuesday and the two- and 10-year Treasury yield spread widened to negative 103 bps—the deepest inversion since October 2,

Equity funds and ETFs took a drubbing for the Refinitiv Lipper fund-flows week ended Wednesday, May 11, 2022, with the average equity fund declining 8.65% for the flows week—its worst one-week loss since March 25, 2020. However, equity mutual fund and ETF investors only redeemed a net $8.6 billion this week, compared to $27.1 billion for the week ended March 25, 2020. Year to date, equity funds (including ETFs) have taken in a relatively strong $68.6 billion considering the average equity fund is down 16.89% so far this year. That said, the trends for conventional funds versus ETFs are quite

Investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets (including those of conventional funds and ETFs) for the first week in four, injecting a net $28.4 billion for the Refinitiv Lipper fund-flows week ended April 27. However, the headline numbers are a bit misleading. Fund investors were net purchasers of money market funds (+$40.0 billion) and taxable bond funds (+$19 million) while being net redeemers of equity funds (-$8.8 billion) and tax-exempt fixed income funds (-$2.9 billion) for the week. Market Wrap-Up Markets tanked during the fund-flows week as investors weighed the implications of aggressive interest hikes by the Federal Reserve,

Investors were net redeemers of mutual fund assets for the third month in a row, redeeming $64.5 billion from the conventional funds business (excluding ETFs, which are reviewed in the section below) for March. For the twelfth month running, stock & mixed-assets funds experienced net outflows (-$23.4 billion). And as a result of the Federal Reserve Board hiking its key lending rate on March 16 by 25 basis points (bps) and with more to come, the fixed income funds macro-group—for the fourth consecutive month—witnessed net outflows, handing back $47.9 billion for March—its largest since March 2020. Money market funds (+$6.7

Mutual fund and ETF investors continue to plow net new money in tax-exempt bonds this year. For the Refinitiv Lipper fund-flows week ended November 17, 2021, investors injected $1.4 billion into municipal bond funds, for their thirty-seventh consecutive week of net inflows. Despite the municipal bond fund macro-group reporting slight downside performance in seven of the last 10 weeks, concerns of a change in tax law to cover the United States’ ballooning federal deficit and proposed new spending packages by Congress has investors once again paying attention to after-tax returns. The days of tax-loss carryforwards from the financial crisis-era are

A few weeks ago, we touched on Lipper Loan Participation Funds and how the recent rise in yields has led to a significant increase in weekly net flows. Today, we pivot and dive into the Lipper Inflation Protected Bond Funds classification. The Lipper Inflation Protected Bond Funds classification—including both conventional mutual funds and ETFs—realized a quarterly record of inflows in Q1 (+$19.2 billion) despite a negative Q1 return on average (-0.62%). For context, their average quarterly net flow dating back to 2003 is positive $1.7 billion. This Lipper classification saw net outflows this past fund-flows week for the first time

During Refinitiv Lipper’s fund-flows week ended April 28, 2021, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the twelfth week in 13. Money market funds (+$55.9 billion), taxable bond funds (+$7.1 billion), and tax-exempt bond funds (+$1.6 billion) all attracted net inflows over the trailing five trading days. Equity funds (-$3.1 billion), on the other hand, saw net outflows for the first week in 12. Taxable bond funds have seen 19 straight weeks of net inflows with only three weeks of net outflows over the trailing year. Market Wrap-Up At the close of

Investors were overall net redeemers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the first week in the last 10 as they withdrew $14.0 billion out of the market during Refinitiv Lipper’s U.S. fund-flows week ended April 14, 2021. Money market funds (-$27.8 billion) were the sole driver of redemptions. Taxable bond (+$9.1 billion), tax-exempt bond (+2.3 billion), and equity (+$760 million) funds all attracted net inflows over the trailing five trading days. The past fund-flows week marks the first time in nearly six months where we have seen back-to-back weeks of outflows from money market funds. The

Exchange-traded funds attracted some $84.8 billion for the month of February. Equity ETFs took in the lion’s share, drawing a net $78.2 billion for the month, followed by bond ETFs (+$8.1 billion), mixed-assets ETFs (+$590 million), and alternatives ETFs (+$368 million), while commodity ETFs handed back a net $2.4 billion. While the equity markets started the month on an up note, with all three broadly followed U.S. indices posting multiple record highs during the first part of the month, reinflation fears pushed the 10-year Treasury yield to highs not seen since March 19, 2020, closing the month out at 1.47%.

Despite mixed market results for the Refinitiv fund-flows week ended Wednesday, February 17, 2021, investors were net purchasers of long-term fund and ETF assets, injecting a net $9.6 billion into equity funds, $5.7 billion into taxable bond funds, and slightly less than $2.0 billion into tax-exempt bond funds. For the first week in 17, the Dow Jones Industrial Average Price Only Index (+0.56%) rose to the top of the leaderboard of the broadly followed U.S. indices, posting the strongest returns for the fund flows week, while the recent favorite—the Russell 2000 Price Only Index (-1.15%)—experienced the largest one-week decline. The

Some fund classifications that have been under-loved and quasi out-of-favor since the pandemic began have gained in popularity as yields start to creep up and investors begin their rotation out of the popular “stay-at-home” and big-tech stocks. We are seeing investors put money back to work in financial, small-cap, value-oriented issues, and international offerings. For the Lipper fund-flows week, investors were net purchasers of fund and ETF assets, injecting $3.6 billion into equity funds, $10.3 billion into taxable bond funds, and $2.4 billion into tax-exempt bond funds. Meanwhile, investors were net redeemers of money market funds (-$10.0 billion). In particular,

Investors were net sellers of mutual fund assets for the fifth month in a row, withdrawing $75.9 billion from the conventional funds business (excluding ETFs, which are reviewed in the section below) for October. For the twenty-first month in a row, stock & mixed-assets funds witnessed net outflows (-$75.3 billion) in October. However, investors continued plow money into fixed income instruments, pushing the fixed income funds macro-group to its sixth consecutive month of net inflows, injecting $45.2 billion for October. However, money market funds (-$45.9 billion) witnessed net outflows for the fifth consecutive month. For the fourteenth month running, ETFs