Image Source: During LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week that ended May 1, 2024, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the second straight week, adding a net $22.0 billion.This past week, money market funds (+$26.2 billion), municipal bond funds (+$515 million), and commodities funds (+$214 million) reported inflows. Meanwhile, equity funds (-$4.2 billion), mixed-assets funds (-$444 million), taxable bond funds (-$253 million), and alternative investments funds (-$20 million) suffered outflows.After seeing their third largest weekly outflow on record (-$118.5 billion), money markets have recorded back-to-back weeks of inflows.Actively managed equity (-$4.4 billion) reported outflows for the sixth straight week, while passive equity funds (+$216 million) have attracted new capital in nine of the last 10 weeks. Actively managed fixed income funds (+$2.6 billion) saw its sixteenth weekly inflow over the past 18 weeks, as passive fixed income funds (-$2.4 billion) have seen outflows in two of the last three.Spot Bitcoin ETFs reported their first weekly outflow as a group, ending a streak of 15 straight inflows since launching.
Index Performance
At the close of LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week, U.S. broad-based equity indices reported negative returns for the fourth week in five—the DJIA (-1.45%), Nasdaq (-0.68%), Russell 2000 (-0.76%), and S&P 500 (-1.05%) were all in the red.Both the FTSE U.S. Broad Investment Grade Bond Total Return Index (+0.17%) and FTSE High Yield Market Total Return Index (+0.05%) saw gains on the week. The FTSE U.S. Municipal Tax-Exempt Investment Grade Bond Index suffered its seventh consecutive weekly loss.Overseas broad-based indices realized mixed returns—the FTSE 100 (+1.49%) and Shanghai Composite (+2.06%) witnessed plus-side returns, whereas the Dax (-0.91%), Nikkei 225 (-2.15%), and S&P/TSX Composite (-1.04%) registered losses.
Rates/Yields
The two-year (+0.67%) rose, while the 10-year (-0.26%) Treasury yield fell over the course of the week. At the close of session Wednesday, the 10-two Treasury yield spread inverted slightly from last week.According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average (FRM) increased for the fifth consecutive week, with the weekly average currently at 7.22%—the highest level since November. Both the United States Dollar Index (DXY, -0.10%) and VIX (-3.77%) decreased over the course of the week.The CME FedWatch Tool has the likelihood of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) at 14.2%. This tool forecasted a 62.5% possibility of a 25-bps cut one month ago. The next meeting is scheduled for June 12, 2024.
Exchange-Traded Equity Funds
Exchange-traded equity funds recorded a $912 million weekly inflow, the ninth inflow over the past 10 weeks. The macro-group posted a 0.97% loss on the week, the fourth negative return in five weeks.Large-cap ETFs (+$2.3 billion), multi-cap ETFs (+$904 million), and developed international markets ETFs (+$771 million) were the top equity ETF groups to log inflows. Large-cap ETFs witnessed their eighth inflow in 10 weeks as they were led by Lipper’s Large-Cap Growth (+$1.4 billion) classification.Sector equity ETFs (-$1.9 billion), small-cap ETFs (-$1.3 billion), and mid-cap ETFs (-$334 million) suffered the largest weekly outflows under equity ETFs. Health/Biotechnology ETFs (-$724 million) and Consumer Services ETFs (-$684 million) led sector equity to see its second weekly outflow in three.Over the past fund-flows week, the two top equity ETF flow attractors were iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (, +$1.7 billion) and Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (, +$928 million).Meanwhile, the two bottom equity ETFs in terms of weekly outflows were SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (, -$1.4 billion) and iShares Russell 2000 ETF (, -$1.0 billion).
Exchange-Traded Fixed Income Funds
Exchange-traded taxable fixed income funds observed a $2.1 billion weekly outflow—the macro-group’s second outflow in three weeks. Fixed income ETFs reported a loss of 0.41% on average, the fifth weekly loss in seven.Short/intermediate government & Treasury ETFs (-$2.6 billion), alternative bond ETFs (-$908 million), and general domestic taxable fixed income ETFs (-$365 million) were the top taxable fixed income ETF subgroup to witness outflows on the week. Short/intermediate government & Treasury ETFs saw their first outflow in four weeks as it suffered the largest outflow since the week ending Jan. 31, 2024.Government & Treasury ETFs (+$2.0 billion), short/intermediate investment-grade ETFs (+$108 million), and world income ETFs (+$51 million) were the top subgroups under taxable bond ETFs to observe inflows.Government & Treasury ETFs posted their sixth inflow over the past seven weeks, led by U.S. Mortgage ETFs (+$2.0 billion) which celebrated their largest weekly inflow since October 2022. After a record setting weekly inflow three weeks ago, short/intermediate investment-grade ETFs realize their eighth straight week of net new money.Municipal bond ETFs reported an $89 million inflow over the week, marking the group’s third weekly inflow in four. Municipal bond ETFs saw their sixth weekly loss (-0.04%) in seven weeks.iShares MBS ETF (, +$1.4 billion) and iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (, +$645 million) attracted the largest amounts of weekly net new money under fixed income ETFs.On the other hand, SPDR Portfolio Short Term Treasury ETF (, -$1.2 billion) and iShares iBoxx $Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (, -$824 million) suffered the largest weekly outflows.
Conventional Equity Funds
Conventional equity funds (ex-ETFs) witnessed weekly outflows (-$5.1 billion) for the one-hundred-and-sixteenth straight week. Conventional equity funds posted a weekly return of negative 0.92%, the fourth week of losses in five.Multi-cap funds (-$1.3 billion), small-cap funds (-$671 million), and large-cap funds (-$657 million) were the top conventional equity fund subgroups to realize weekly outflows. Multi-cap conventional mutual funds posted their sixth consecutive week of outflows, led by Multi-Cap Core Funds (-$681 million).No conventional equity mutual fund subgroups logged an inflow on the week.
Conventional Fixed Income Funds
Conventional taxable-fixed income funds realized a weekly inflow of $1.8 billion—marking the first inflow in four weeks. The macro-group logged a gain of 0.16% on average—their second straight week appreciating.General domestic taxable fixed income funds (+$753 million), short/intermediate investment-grade funds (+$704 million), and high yield funds (+$256 million) were the top groups under taxable fixed income mutual funds to log inflows over the week. General domestic taxable fixed income funds were led by Lipper’s Loan Participation (+$268 million) and Multi-Sector Income funds (+$256 million). General domestic taxable fixed income funds have reported 18 inflows over the past 19 weeks.Government & Treasury funds (-$112 million) and short/intermediate government & Treasury funds (-$77 million) were the only two taxable fixed income mutual fund subgroups to post weekly net outflows. Government & Treasury funds have seen four consecutive weekly outflows.Municipal bond conventional funds (ex-ETFs) returned a negative 0.10% over the fund-flows week, giving the subgroup its sixth loss in seven weeks. Tax-exempt fixed income mutual funds experienced a $426 million inflow, marking the first inflow in the last four weeks.Russell 2000 Earnings Dashboard 24Q1 – Thursday, May 2S&P 500 Earnings Dashboard 24Q1 – Thursday, May 2S&P 500 Earnings Dashboard 24Q1 – Tuesday, April 30
