Stock mutual funds and ETFs overall reported net inflows of $5.7 billion for the week, the strongest week for equity products in the last four. Investors showed confidence in continued upward movement for stocks, injecting $3.2 billion into mutual funds and $2.5 billion into ETFs, reported Matthew Lemieux of Lipper.
Equity mutual funds saw their ninth consecutive week of inflows, bringing their year-to-date total to $59 billion, $22.2 billion of which comes from domestic equity funds.
Meanwhile, year-to-date flows for emerging markets products were almost flat, where net redemptions of just over $1 billion for ETFs virtually cancelled out inflows of just over $1 billion for mutual funds.
Like equity mutual funds, taxable bond funds also saw their ninth consecutive week of inflows. $5.3 billion ($3.5 billion in mutual funds and $1.7 billion in ETFs) is also the group's largest weekly intake since the beginning of November.
Investors continued to favor bank loan products, injecting $1.1 billion, "as many thought the sector a good place to gain yield while guarding against the possibility of rising interest rates," Lemieux said. Year-to-date, bank loan funds have attracted $10.8 billion.
Junk bonds also "gained some interest" this week, with high-yield funds attracting inflows of $820 million for the first time in five weeks. Municipal debt funds reported their first week of outflows in the last nine with $97 million in redemptions, and investors once again began pulling cash out of money market products, specifically $12.9 billion.
