Where Did Investors Put Their Money In April?
Fund flow data for April was released by AMGD, and the data shows that some
some interesting reversals in previous trends occurred last month. Not only did
equity fund inflows increase by the largest amount in over a year but they were
also greater than bond inflows for the first time since April 2002. So it
appears that investors are beginning to dip their toes into the equity pool once
again. Could this be time for a respite in the uptrend for stocks perhaps before
we go on?
Equity Funds
$12.9 billion dollars were allocated to equity funds last month–the largest
amount since April of 2002. And most of these inflows went to US large-cap
focused funds, including $3.2 billion to American Funds, $1.6 went to Vanguard,
and $1.3 billion went to Fidelity. $1.452 billion went into aggressive growth;
$1.076 went to Small Cap Growth; $204 million went into technology (very
underrepresented–see
last night’s column) and $1.927 went to international
equity funds.
Bond Funds
Taxable bond funds saw combined inflows of $11 billion. High yield debt
continues to show resiliency and again was the primary beneficiary of this
trend, receiving $5.6 billion. Meanwhile, less risky investment grade bond funds
saw $2.4 billion worth of inflows.
Money market funds saw an impressive $69.2 worth of outflows during April
(some of which can be attributed to tax payments that were due last month), and
municipal bond funds received a meager $106 million for the same time period.