More Bond Fund Outflows
Bond mutual funds and ETFs continue to see major outflows in the latest week, according to ICI's "Combined Estimated Long-Term Fund Flows and ETF Net Issuance". The December 19, 2018 release, with data as of Dec. 12, 2018, says, "Total estimated outflows from long-term mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were $34.78 billion for the eight-day period ended December 12, 2018, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Estimated mutual fund outflows were $40.74 billion while estimated net issuance for ETFs was $5.96 billion. Reports of long-term flow estimates and ETF net issuance are available on the ICI website." ICI Chief Economist Sean Collins comments, "This week's outflow from mutual funds, while striking in dollar terms, represents 0.26 percent of long-term mutual fund assets as of October 31, and were offset in part by inflows of $5.96 billion into exchange-traded funds in the same week.... `Consistent with their behavior over seven decades of history, mutual fund investors are reacting moderately to market volatility, and for the most part are maintaining their investment plans and asset allocations." The release adds, "Bond funds had estimated outflows of $12.02 billion for the week, compared to estimated outflows of $5.24 billion during the previous week. Taxable bond funds saw estimated outflows of $12.20 billion, and municipal bond funds had estimated inflows of $178 million." Crane Data, which has begun "beta" testing a new Bond Fund Intelligence Daily product, estimates that bond fund assets have declined $21.8 billion in the week ended December 18. (Let us know if you'd like to see a copy of our new product, which tracks daily assets, yields and NAVs on a subset of the bond fund and ETF universe.)
