Takeaway: Outflows from domestic equity and fixed income continue while international equity funds continue their best year post-2007.

Investment Company Institute Mutual Fund Data and ETF Money Flow:

Investors continued recent trends last week with domestic equity and fixed income funds in redemption while international equity funds continued to win new funds at a record pace. Domestic equity mutual funds have now experienced net outflows for 24 consecutive weeks now totaling over -$93.0 billion, including the most recent week which racked up another -$2.3 billion loss. Total fixed income mutual funds and ETFs have been in outflow for 8 of the last 10 weeks, including three consecutive weeks of losses. Total fixed income products gave up -$3.7 billion in the most recent 5 day period as consternation about the direction of short term interest rates continues. Conversely, international equity mutual funds are having their best year on record, post-2007. The asset class has experienced inflows in every week so for in 2015 winning +$95.0 billion in new funds year-to-date, including the most recent week of +$3.8 billion in contributions.

Of these trends, we see growing domestic redemptions as the most actionable and continue to recommend shorting T. Rowe Price (TROW) stock with over 60% of its assets-under-management (AUM) in mutual funds and 85% of its AUM in domestic products (see our TROW report HERE).


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI1


In the most recent 5-day period ending August 12th, total equity mutual funds put up net inflows of +$1.5 billion, outpacing the year-to-date weekly average inflow of +$83 million and the 2014 average inflow of +$620 million. The inflow was composed of international stock fund contributions of +$3.8 billion and domestic stock fund withdrawals of -$2.3 billion. International equity funds have had positive flows in 48 of the last 52 weeks while domestic equity funds have had only 10 weeks of positive flows over the same time period.


Fixed income mutual funds put up net outflows of -$2.7 billion, trailing the year-to-date weekly average inflow of +$1.3 billion and the 2014 average inflow of +$926 million. The outflow was composed of tax-free or municipal bond funds withdrawals of -$10 million and taxable bond funds withdrawals of -$2.7 billion.


Equity ETFs had net subscriptions of +$2.1 billion, trailing the year-to-date weekly average inflow of +$2.3 billion and the 2014 average inflow of +$3.2 billion. Fixed income ETFs had net outflows of -$1.0 billion, trailing the year-to-date weekly average inflow of +$809 million and the 2014 average inflow of +$1.0 billion.


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.



Most Recent 12 Week Flow in Millions by Mutual Fund Product: Chart data is the most recent 12 weeks from the ICI mutual fund survey and includes the weekly average for 2014 and the weekly year-to-date average for 2015:


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI2


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI3


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI4


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI5


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI6



Cumulative Annual Flow in Millions by Mutual Fund Product: Chart data is the cumulative fund flow from the ICI mutual fund survey for each year starting with 2008.

 

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ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI16



Most Recent 12 Week Flow within Equity and Fixed Income Exchange Traded Funds: Chart data is the most recent 12 weeks from Bloomberg's ETF database (matched to the Wednesday to Wednesday reporting format of the ICI), the weekly average for 2014, and the weekly year-to-date average for 2015. In the third table are the results of the weekly flows into and out of the major market and sector SPDRs:


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI7


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI8



Sector and Asset Class Weekly ETF and Year-to-Date Results: In sector SPDR callouts, the utilities XLU ETF experienced the largest percentage outflow for the week. The fund lost -6% of its assets or -$375 million to redemptions.


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI9



Cumulative Annual Flow in Millions within Equity and Fixed Income Exchange Traded Funds: Chart data is the cumulative fund flow from Bloomberg's ETF database for each year starting with 2013.


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ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI18



Net Results:

The net of total equity mutual fund and ETF flows against total bond mutual fund and ETF flows totaled a positive +$7.3 billion spread for the week (+$3.6 billion of total equity inflow net of the -$3.7 billion outflow from fixed income; positive numbers imply greater money flow to stocks; negative numbers imply greater money flow to bonds). The 52-week moving average is +$2.1 billion (more positive money flow to equities) with a 52-week high of +$27.9 billion (more positive money flow to equities) and a 52-week low of -$18.1 billion (negative numbers imply more positive money flow to bonds for the week.)

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Exposures:
The weekly data herein is important for the public asset managers with trends in mutual funds and ETFs impacting the companies with the following estimated revenue impact:


ICI Fund Flow Survey | 6 Consecutive Months and Counting...The Most Pervasive Trend on Wall Street - ICI11 



Jonathan Casteleyn, CFA, CMT 

 

 


Joshua Steiner, CFA