Investors in exchange-traded funds added nearly $7.7 billion to US-based stock funds during the week ended November 25, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service showed Friday, moderating a wave of withdrawals by mutual-fund investors from risky assets. Overall, US-based stock mutual funds and ETFs attracted $2.9 billion in new cash during the week.
The positive result for those funds came despite outflows overall for mutual funds invested in equities and other risk assets. Those investors took $4.7 billion out of stock funds and another $3.5 billion from taxable bond funds. Altogether, taxable bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds posted $2.8 billion in outflows over the period, reversing moderate inflows the week before, Lipper said.
Mutual funds that invest in investment-grade bonds saw cash withdrawals of $1.8 billion in the week that ended Wednesday, posting a negative four-week moving average of $627 million. High-yield junk bond mutual funds, meanwhile, saw cash withdrawals of $505 million in the latest week ended Wednesday, driving their negative four-week moving average to $219 million. It was the high-yield fund group's third week of cash withdrawals.
Low-risk money market funds took in $6.1 billion in new cash during the week after posting more than $20 billion in outflows a week earlier. Emerging-market funds saw their streak of outflows extend to four weeks, though the pace of those withdrawals slowed to $59 million as investment performance improved during the weekly period. The four-week moving average of outflows for those funds stands at negative $417 million.
The period measured by Lipper does not include trading on Friday, when funds tracking China and a broader suite of emerging markets all saw their prices decline after Reuters reported the stock regulator had widened its probe on brokerages to include the country's fourth-biggest securities firm. The Lipper fund flow data is compiled from reports issued by US-domiciled mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.