Scalper1 News
By Patrick Keon Lipper’s fund macro-groups (including both mutual funds and exchange-traded funds [ETFs]) had aggregate net inflows of $14.0 billion for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, October 14. This activity marked the second consecutive week of overall positive flows; the groups took in $11.8 billion of net new money the prior week. The wealth was spread out this past week, with all four fund macro-groups experiencing positive net flows: money market funds (+$7.9 billion) led the pack, followed by taxable bond funds (+$3.1 billion) and equity funds (+$2.5 billion), while municipal bond funds contributed $521 million. The downturn at the end of the week was triggered by weak economic data from both domestic and foreign sources. Reports out of China again raised global growth concerns. China’s economic growth for Q3 2015 was forecasted to be 6.8%, the lowest level since 2009, giving investors concerns as to whether the slump in the world’s second largest economy is worse than originally thought. On the home front, corporate earnings and a gloomy picture of U.S. growth weighed on the markets. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT ) issued a much weaker-than-expected profit forecast, which-coupled with the release of a weak U.S. retail sales report-resulted in a sell-off in the retail sector. The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book pointed toward a continued slowdown in U.S. growth. With economic data continuing to point to weakness and the inflation rate sitting well below the target rate of 2.0%, it seems the likelihood of the Fed raising interest rates in 2015 is getting slim. The week’s positive flows into money market funds (+$7.9 billion) marks the fourth consecutive week of net inflows for the group over which time they have taken in almost $42 billion. Institutional money market funds were responsible for the lion’s share of the positive flows last week, taking in $8.2 billion in net new money this past week. ETFs (+4.7 billion) were responsible for all of the equity net inflows for the week, while equity mutual funds saw $2.2 billion leave their coffers. The Powershares QQQ Trust ETF ( QQQ , +$1.3 billion ) and the iShares Russell 2000 ETF ( IWM , +$911 million ) had the two largest net inflows on the ETF side, while for mutual funds both domestic (-$1.6 billion) and nondomestic (-$700 million) equity funds experienced net outflows. ETFs (+$2.6 billion) contributed the majority of the net new money for taxable bond funds, while taxable bond mutual funds chipped in almost $500 million. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF ( HYG , +$616 million ) and the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF ( LQD , +$608 million ) were the two largest contributors to the positive flows for ETFs. Lipper’s High Yield Funds (+$378 million) and U.S. Mortgage Funds (+$326 million) classifications had the two largest increases for mutual funds. Municipal bond mutual funds took in $482 million of new money for their second straight week of net inflows. The majority of these inflows (+$319 million) came from funds in Lipper’s national municipal bond fund groups. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News