Takeaway: In the most recent week, domestic equity mutual funds had drawdowns with fixed income taking the baton as the more stable asset class.

Editor's Note: This is a research note originally published March 27, 2014 by Hedgeye’s Financials Jonathan Casteleyn & Joshua Steiner. For more information on how you can subscribe to Hedgeye, please click here.
 ICI Fund Flow Survey, Refreshed - NYSE  1

Investment Company Institute Mutual Fund Data and ETF Money Flow

In the most recent week, while fixed income inflow wasn't historically impressive considering the significant inflows in the beginning of last year, bonds have clearly been the more stable asset class year-to-date considering declining equity trends especially within domestic equity funds recently:

Total equity mutual funds produced the first week of net outflow in 6 weeks with $968 million of net redemptions, a deceleration from the $3.1 billion inflow the week prior. The $968 million outflow was caused by domestic fund losses during the most recent 5 day period ending March 19th, with $3.8 billion flowing out of U.S. equity funds versus $2.8 billion that flowed into international stock funds. The 2014 running weekly average inflow for equity mutual funds is now $4.3 billion, an improvement from the $3.0 billion weekly average inflow for 2013. 

Fixed income mutual funds continued improving fund flow trends for the week ending March 19th with $2.4 billion flowing into all fixed income funds. The breakout of improving bond fund inflow amounted to $2.2 billion into taxable products and a $237 million inflow into tax-free or municipal products. The inflow into taxable products this week was 6th consecutive week of positive flow and the inflow into municipal or tax-free products was the 10th consecutive week of positive subscriptions. The 2014 weekly average for fixed income mutual funds now stands at a $1.5 billion weekly inflow, an improvement from 2013's weekly average outflow of $1.5 billion but a far cry from the $5.8 billion weekly average inflow from 2012 (our view of the blow off top in bond fund inflow).

ETFs experienced positive trends during the week, with a very strong week of subscriptions into stock ETFs with $10.1 billion in net inflow with bond ETFs experiencing a slightly above average inflow of $1.3 billion for the 5 day period. The 2014 weekly averages are now a $620 million weekly inflow for equity ETFs and a $926 million weekly inflow for fixed income ETFs. 

The net of total equity mutual fund and ETF trends against total bond mutual fund and ETF flows totaled a positive $5.4 billion spread for the week ($9.2 billion of total equity inflow versus the $3.8 billion inflow within fixed income; positive numbers imply greater money flow to stocks; negative numbers imply greater money flow to bonds). The 52 week moving average has been $7.2 billion (more positive money flow to equities), with a 52 week high of $31.0 billion (more positive money flow to equities) and a 52 week low of -$37.4 billion (negative numbers imply more positive money flow to bonds for the week). 

Mutual fund flow data is collected weekly from the Investment Company Institute (ICI) and represents a survey of 95% of the investment management industry's mutual fund assets. Mutual fund data largely reflects the actions of retail investors. Exchange traded fund (ETF) information is extracted from Bloomberg and is matched to the same weekly reporting schedule as the ICI mutual fund data. According to industry leader Blackrock (BLK), U.S. ETF participation is 60% institutional investors and 40% retail investors.   

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Most Recent 12 Week Flow in Millions by Mutual Fund Product

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Most Recent 12 Week Flow Within Equity and Fixed Income Exchange Traded Funds

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Net Results

The net of total equity mutual fund and ETF trends against total bond mutual fund and ETF flows totaled a positive $5.4 billion spread for the week ($9.2 billion of total equity inflow versus the $3.8 billion outflow within fixed income; positive numbers imply greater money flow to stocks; negative numbers imply greater money flow to bonds). The 52 week moving average has been $7.2 billion (more positive money flow to equities), with a 52 week high of $31.0 billion (more positive money flow to equities) and a 52 week low of -$37.4 billion (negative numbers imply more positive money flow to bonds for the week).

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