The bear continues to roar. In the first quarter of the year, the average U.S. equity stock mutual fund fell 1.5%, while the average bond fund returned 2%, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing Lipper data.
The only equity categories to hold up in positive territory over the past three years have been small-cap value and balanced funds.
"In an odd twist, the most battered fund packs since stocks peak in 2000, including tech funds, growth funds and junk-bond funds, showed some life," WSJ reports. In fact, diversified stock funds that fared best in the first quarter were growth offerings with big bets on the tech sector. Technology and health-care sector funds bounced a bit in the first quarter, each rising 2.1% on average.
Among bond funds, emerging markets funds gained 7.5% on average, while junk or high-yield bond funds rose more than 5%. Intermediate-term bond funds and government bond funds, top-sellers in recent quarters, gained 1.3% and just under 1%, respectively. For their part, each municipal bond fund category inched up, gaining less than 1%.
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The staff of Mutual Fund Market News ("MFMN") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MFMN, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.
