After surging 7.81% in April, equity mutual funds rose 7.09% in May,
The best-performing fund category in May was small-cap, which rose 9.35%. It was followed by mid-cap funds, which were up 8.47% and multi-cap funds, up 6.94%. However, hurt by holdings in technology, retail and health stocks, large-cap funds rose an average of 5.19% in May.
Despite the strong market rebound, the U.S. economy still is not showing signs of revitalization, Lipper noted. Durable good orders fell 2.4% in April, retail sales excluding automobiles dropped 0.9%, industrial production was down 0.5% and the unemployment rate rose 0.2% to 6.0%.
Equity prices rose on improved earnings reports, but those were primarily due to cost-cutting rather than revenue growth, Lipper said.
