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

Not surprising given the uptick in inflation data, hawkish comments by Federal Reserve officials, and rising interest rates, investors were net redeemers of fund assets (including conventional funds and ETFs) for the third week in four, withdrawing a net $2.1 billion for the Refinitiv Lipper fund-flows week ended Wednesday, February 22. Investors were net purchasers of money market funds (+$5.4 billion) while being net redeemers of equity funds (-$5.6 billion), tax-exempt fixed income funds (-$1.7 billion), and taxable bond funds (-$295 million) for the week. During the fund-flows week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation at the

Fixed income funds realized a return of negative 2.98% on average during the third quarter of 2022. This was the third consecutive negative quarterly performance for fixed income funds and the fourth over the last five quarters. The last time fixed income funds reported three straight negative performing quarters was Q2 through Q4 of 2015. Of the macro-groups, Alternative Bond Funds (-1.44%), General Domestic Taxable Fixed Income Funds (-1.88%), and National Municipal Bed Funds (-2.03 %) suffered the least over the last three months. Government/Treasury Funds (-4.47%), World Taxable Fixed Income Funds (-4.18%), and General Municipal Debt Funds (-4.04%) closed

Fixed income funds realized a return of negative 5.21% on average during the second quarter of 2022, marking the worst quarterly performance in more than 40 years (Q3 1981, -7.06%). This was the second consecutive negative quarterly performance for fixed income funds and the third over the last four quarters. All 51 Lipper fixed income classifications ended the quarter with sub-zero quarterly performance for the second straight quarter. Four Lipper classifications finished the quarter realizing less than 1.0%, which is up from three in Q1 2022. Summary: Taxable bond funds (-5.83%) underperformed tax-exempt bond funds (-3.53%) in quarterly performance for

Fixed income funds realized a return of negative 4.71% on average during the first quarter of 2022, marking the second negative quarterly performance over the last three quarters and their worst-performing quarter in more than 30 years. Taxable bond funds (-4.37%) outperformed tax-exempt bond funds (-5.67%) in quarterly performance for the sixth quarter in the last eight. All 51 Lipper fixed income classifications ended the quarter with sub-zero quarterly performance, which is up from 23 last quarter. Only three Lipper classifications finished the quarter depreciating less than 1.0%. Summary: Government/Treasury funds posted a negative 3.71% return on average over the