For the third consecutive week ended April 3, equity exchange-traded funds experienced net outflows, losing some $800 million, while their conventional mutual fund brethren took in $3.0 billion—for their thirteenth consecutive week of net inflows (bringing their year-to-date total to +$78.9 billion), according to data from Lipper.
“As might be expected, given the strong rally in equities and the record highs set for the broad-based indices, the top ETF attractor of investor assets was SPDR S&P 500 ETF at a subdued $636 million, followed by iShares Core S&P 500, taking in a little under $304 million,” according to Tom Roseen, head of research services at Lipper.
“Once again, given the broad declines in the price of gold, SPDR Gold was at the bottom of the heap, handing back some $761 million for the week, bettered somewhat by last week’s top attractor of assets—iShares Russell 2000 Index, suffering $624 million of net redemptions.
Domestic equity funds witnessed net inflows of $788 million, while their nondomestic equity fund counterparts took in some $1.5 billion. “Once again, conventional mutual fund investors took on a little more risk in the taxable fixed income funds space (+$2.0 billion net), injecting $1.2 billion into corporate investment-grade debt funds (for their forty-second consecutive week of net inflows),” according to Roseen.
For the fifth consecutive week municipal debt funds (ex-ETFs) experienced net outflows, handing back some $281 million.
