Investors Resume Buying Bond Mutual Funds

Investors resumed buying bond funds again in the week ending in the week ended Dec. 1, but at a much slower pace that in the recent past.

Bond funds took in $489 million for the week, less than a third of the $1.85 billion that walked out the door the previous week, the Investment Company Institute said Wednesday.

All of the money went into taxable bond funds, which had inflows of $549 million, while municipal bond funds had outflows of $61 million.

Investors also resumed buying equity funds, but with even less enthusiasm. Stock funds took in just $47 million for the week, after seeing outflows of $2.45 billion in the previous week. Sales of foreign stock funds of $1.85 billion were nearly offset by $1.80 billion of withdrawals from domestic stock funds.

Hybrid funds, which can invest in stocks and bonds, took in $508 million for the week, or less than half of the $1.26 billion they took in the previous week.

Total estimated inflows from long-term mutual funds were $1.04 billion for the week.

Estimates are derived from data collected covering more than 95% of industry assets and are adjusted to represent industry totals.

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Mutual funds Investment products Fixed income
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