The equities flows seesaw continued over the latest weekly reporting period.
US-stock focused ETFs and mutual funds reversed the prior week’s outflows, taking in $17 billion following the March FOMC meeting.
In the lead-up to this month’s Fed gathering, US equity funds saw heavy redemptions as $22 billion hit the exits, the most in over a year. That outflow came on the heels of the largest one-week inflow on record, a $56 billion influx.
With this week’s haul, US equities have seen a net $75.2 billion of inflows so far in 2024.
It’s notoriously difficult to interpret week-to-week oscillations in fund flows, but you could suggest investors in US shares were emboldened when the 2024 median marker in the Fed’s new dot plot escaped unchanged from this month’s policy deliberations. Some suspected it’d shift up to reflect just a pair of rate cuts this year in light of inflation overshoots in January and February. Instead, it tipped the same three cuts as December’s SEP.
Overall, global equity funds took in $16.3 billion over the week, as the inflows to US shares and an 11th consecutive week of buying in Japanese stocks (following the BoJ meeting, notably) offset a never-ending bleed from European funds and small redemptions from EM equities.
For 2024 YTD, net inflows to equity funds amount to $141.7 billion. The figure above shows you the weekly breakdown by region.
Outside of equities, IG credit funds saw a 22nd weekly inflow (that’s helping to facilitate robust primary market activity) while gold funds saw small outflows after enjoying the largest influx in 10 months during the prior week. Crypto funds took in $300 million.
Notably, the anomalous mid-month outflow from US money market funds didn’t reverse in the week to Wednesday. The ICI update showed $5.68 billion in redemptions, entirely attributable to institutional government flows.
Total AUM fell a second week to $6.04 trillion. The record high was $6.11 trillion on March 13.
I’d caution against reading too much into that. Money fund flows could be erratic around tax season, but it’s important to stay apprised: The fate of the $6 trillion parked in cash is critical for any number of reasons ranging from systemic concerns tied to T-bill supply to questions about a potential rotation out of cash and into other assets, including and especially equities.
