Funds Experience $2.8 Billion In Aggregate Net Outflows
By Patrick Keon The positive performance by the indices came on the heels of negative performance by both for the month of January. The Dow was off 3.6% for the month, while the S&P 500 retreated 3.1%. It was the worst monthly performance for each index since January of last year. A contributing factor to this January’s poor performance as well as the bounce at the start of February was oil. Slumping oil prices caused by oversupply had weighed on the markets. But last week sentiment on the street suggested oil prices may have bottomed, and the demand for energy stocks was the driving force behind the markets’ rally. In this past week’s fund-flows activity, Lipper’s fund macro groups had overall net outflows of $2.8 billion. Money market funds (-$9.9 billion) and equity funds (-$7.1 billion) paced the way for the net outflows, while taxable bond funds (+$13.7 billion) accounted for the lion’s share of the net inflows. Municipal bond funds took in $589 million net for the week. The net inflows into taxable bond funds were split between those to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) (+$8.6 billion net) and mutual funds (+$5.1 billion). On the ETF side, investors were buying iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF ( SHV , +$2.0 billion), iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF ( IEF , +$1.3 billion), and iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF ( IEI , +$927 million). For mutual funds, Lipper’s Core Plus Bond Funds classification led the way with positive flows of $2.3 billion. Equity ETFs (-$5.7 billion net) accounted for the bulk of the equity outflows, while equity mutual funds saw $1.5 billion leave. SPDR S&P 500 ETF ( SPY , -$2.2 billion) and iShares US Technology ETF ( IYW ,-$1.2 billion) experienced the biggest outflows among the ETFs. Net outflows on the mutual fund side were fairly evenly split between non-domestic equity (-$869 million) and domestic equity (-$608 million) funds. Municipal bond mutual funds took in $422 million net during the week. Once again, funds in the national municipal categories (+$464 million) were the main recipients of the positive flows. Lastly, money market funds saw their coffers reduced by $9.9 billion net during the week. Institutional money market funds (-$6.4 billion) were responsible for the bulk of the outflows. Are you Bullish or Bearish on ? Bullish Bearish Neutral Results for ( ) Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Submit & View Results Skip to results » Share this article with a colleague