Lipper Fund Flows: Muni Bonds Continue To Shine
For the fund-flows week ended October 7, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 628 points to settle at 16,912. Equity mutual fund investors made net redemptions of $3.9 billion this past week (of which $2.0 billion was from large-cap funds), while equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw net outflows of $4.1 billion as investors backed out of SPDR S&P 500 ((NYSEARCA: SPY ), -$2.0 billion), iShares Russell 2000 ((NYSEARCA: IWM ), -$1.6 billion), and iShares MSCI Germany ((NYSEARCA: EWG ), -$375 million). The $1.8-billion Select Sector Oil & Gas SPDR ((NYSEARCA: XOP ), +$303 million) led the weekly net inflows list. Bond mutual fund investors, like their equity counterparts, took a risk-off attitude as they redeemed shares. Overall, taxable bond mutual funds saw net outflows of $2.3 billion for the week, which marked the eleventh consecutive week of outflows for the group. Also marking 11 weeks of net outflows, Lipper’s Loan Participation Funds classification (-$354 million) saw no end in sight to the bleeding. High Yield Funds suffered outflows (-$675 million) among mutual fund investors but managed to take in net inflows on the ETF side (+$1.4 billion). Overall, bond ETFs saw $4.6 billion of net inflows. The week’s biggest bond ETF net inflows went to SPDR Barclays High Yield ((NYSEARCA: JNK ) , +$1.2 billion ) , while iShares 1-3 Credit ((NYSEARCA: CSJ ) , -$137 million ) led the net outflows list. Municipal bond mutual fund investors added $528 million net to their accounts, and the funds now have had inflows for two of the past three weeks-their best showing since April. Money market funds saw net inflows of $16.8 billion, of which institutional investors added $10.2 billion and retail investors added $6.6 billion. Share this article with a colleague