Tag Archives: black-friday

During the fund-flows week ended December 2, 2015, investors remained on the fence ahead of the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, the European Central Bank’s details of its stimulus plans, and after learning that Chinese regulators were investigating two Chinese brokerage firms for securities violations. And, of course, investors were anxiously awaiting results of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales to get a gauge of consumer demand for the upcoming holiday season. With the U.S. market closed for Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day holiday, returns were muted on Friday; investors preferred the comfort of defensive issues after energy shares once again took it on the chin following another decline in oil prices that were pressured by a strong dollar and concerns of a glut in global supply. While energy shares saw a slight boost on Monday after an uptick in oil prices, retail stocks struggled as first reads on the beginning of the holiday shopping season appeared soft. A weaker-than-expected Chicago PMI report indicated the region fell back into contraction territory, but that was partially offset by a 0.2% increase in pending home sales for October. Investors even appeared to shrug off a subpar reading of the November ISM manufacturing index, which fell to 48.9 (the lowest reading since 2009 and signaling contraction), ahead of comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and the nonfarm payrolls report due on Friday. Better-than-expected reports on construction spending and auto sales helped keep investors engaged. On Wednesday, however, stocks turned down as Yellen and Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart both indicated a case for an imminent rate increase and as oil futures sank under $40 a barrel. Nonetheless, investors were net purchases of fund assets (including those of conventional funds and exchange-traded funds [ETFs]), injecting a net $15.2 billion for the fund-flows week ended December 2. Cautious investors turned their back on equity and fixed income funds, redeeming $0.9 billion and $2.1 billion net, respectively, for the week, but they padded the coffers of money market funds (+$17.8 billion) and municipal bond funds (+$0.4 billion) on the uncertain news. For the eighth week in a row equity ETFs witnessed net inflows, taking in $3.8 billion for the week. Despite initial concerns over the holiday season, authorized participants (APs) were net purchasers of domestic equity ETFs (+$3.4 billion), injecting money into the group for a third consecutive week. They also padded—for the second week running—the coffers of nondomestic equity ETFs (but only to the tune of +$0.4 billion). As a result of the relative risk aversion during the week, APs turned their attention to higher-quality, well-known equity offerings, with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY ) (+$2.7 billion), the iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF (NYSEARCA: EZU ) (+$0.3 billion), and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEARCA: DIA ) (+$0.2 billion) attracting the largest amounts of net new money of all individual equity ETFs. At the other end of the spectrum the SPDR Gold ETF (NYSEARCA: GLD ) (-$566 million) experienced the largest net redemptions, while the iShares Nasdaq Biotech ETF (NASDAQ: IBB ) (-$267 million) suffered the second largest redemptions for the week. Once again, in contrast to equity ETF investors, for the fourth week in a row conventional fund (ex-ETF) investors were net redeemers of equity funds, redeeming $4.7 billion from the group. Domestic equity funds, handing back $3.4 billion, witnessed their fourth consecutive week of net outflows. Meanwhile, their nondomestic equity fund counterparts witnessed $1.3 billion of net outflows—suffering net redemptions for the third consecutive week. On the domestic side investors lightened up on large-cap funds and equity income funds, redeeming a net $1.7 billion and $0.7 billion, respectively, for the week. On the nondomestic side international equity funds witnessed $1.3 billion of net outflows, while emerging-market equity funds handed back some $0.7 billion. For the fourth consecutive week taxable bond funds (ex-ETFs) witnessed net outflows, handing back a little more than $1.8 billion for the week. Corporate investment-grade debt funds suffered the largest redemptions for the week, witnessing net outflows of $737 million (for their second consecutive week of net redemptions), while flexible portfolio funds witnessed the second largest net redemptions (-$654 million). Despite the increasing chance of a December interest rate increase, bank rate funds—handing back some $367 million for the week—experienced their nineteenth consecutive week of net outflows. For the ninth week in a row municipal bond funds (ex-ETFs) witnessed net inflows, taking in $331 million this past week.