Equity funds (including ETFs) witnessed their first weekly net inflows in 14 for the Refinitiv Lipper fund-flows week ended Wednesday, November 11, 2020. They attracted some $23.8 billion, their strongest weekly net inflows since the week ended December 27, 2017, and third largest on record. Investors cheered the announcement by Pfizer and BioNTech of their successful Phase 3 study of a COVID-19 vaccine, which was reported to have a 90% effective rate of preventing infection. The firms’ plan to request Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration pushed U.S. markets to near-new highs, with the Russell 2000 Price

Since the COVID-related market meltdown in March, equity funds (including ETFs) have continued to suffer net outflows despite the average equity fund moving into positive territory and posting a year-to-date return of 2.93%. They have handed back some $317.0 billion year to date (their largest net outflows for any full one-year period) through the Refinitiv Lipper fund-flows week ended October 21, 2020. As we have highlighted in prior segments, U.S. domiciled large-cap funds (-$191.5 billion)—the flows pariah of the equity universe—have continued to suffer secular net outflows, bettered by international equity funds (-$89.2 billion) and small-cap funds (-$35.3 billion). However,

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

The high-flying tech and stay-at-home stocks took a beating during the Refintiv Lipper fund-flows week ended September 9, 2020. While the NASDAQ Composite did enter correction territory, declining 10.03% from its most recent market closing high on September 2, investors buying the dip helped the index recover some of those three-day losses in the last day of trading. For the fund-flows week, the index was down 7.59%. In contrast, the average equity fund (including ETFs) was down just 2.22% for the week, but Lipper’s Natural Resources Funds (-6.72%), Commodity Energy Funds (-6.60%), and Equity Leverage Funds (-5.33%) classifications experienced the

Convertible Securities (CV) Funds, an often-ignored classification in the mixed-assets funds space, have been on a tear in 2020. Given the stingy bond yields in the market and the red-hot stock market of late (ignoring the recent one-day meltdown in tech stocks), the stars have aligned for CV funds. The average CV fund posted a handsome 21.17% year-to-date return through the fund-flows week ended August 2, 2020, trailing the likes of Global Science & Technology Funds (+34.06%), Science & Technology Funds (+29.05%), Large-Cap Growth Funds (+25.75%), Multi-Cap Growth Funds (+24.83%), and China Region Funds (+23.23%). CV funds invest primarily in

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