Equity mutual funds recorded net inflows last week for the first time since early February, reported Lipper.
Equity funds had $3.9 billion in net inflows for the week ending April 1, according to Lipper. The week prior, equity funds had $27.1 billion in net outflows, marking the sixth straight week of declines. Excluding ETFs, equities posted $6.5 billion in net inflows, with $6.3 billion from domestic funds. The big winner was money market funds, which took in nearly $164 billion of net new money. This follows the prior week's record-setting haul of about $260 billion in net inflows.
While investors have been flocking to the safety of money market funds in record numbers, the equity inflows are a positive sign that investor sentiment may be improving on stimulus and relief measures and news that the coronavirus curve may be flattening in some places.
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The New York Fed's Consumer Expectations survey for March, released April 6, shows that long-term investor confidence has not waned much, even during the worst week of the bear market, as its measure of mean probability that U.S. stock prices will be higher one year from now has remained relatively stable.
Taxable bond funds had net outflows for the fifth straight week. All taxable bond funds had $9.2 billion in net outflows for the week ending April 1. The week before, taxable bond funds had a record $65 billion in net outflows. Most of this week's outflows were from corporate investment grade bonds funds, which had $8.4 billion move out. However, high yield funds had net inflows of $7.1 billion. Municipal bonds saw $0.7 billion in net outflows.
