U.S.-based stock funds post $5.7 billion outflow during weekly period: Lipper

By Trevor Hunnicutt

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors pulled $5.7 billion from U.S.-based stock funds during the week ended Feb. 17, Lipper data showed on Thursday, marking seven straight weeks of outflows.

The pullback from mutual funds and exchange-traded funds came amid a three-day rally in the S&P 500 through Wednesday.

But investors were content to trim risks following a tough start to the year and a five-day selloff in that index through Feb. 11.

"We're still seeing significant outflows," said Lipper research analyst Pat Keon. "Investors still haven't bought back into equities."

Investors punished funds focused both on U.S. shares and international companies during the weekly period.

Domestic-stock funds lost $3.6 billion to withdrawals, while non-domestic funds redeemed $2 billion of their funds' shares, Lipper data showed.

European-stock funds posted their largest outflows since October 2014 during the period as investors withdrew $1.2 billion from the investments. Japanese stock funds posted $795 million in outflows, a third consecutive week of outflows for the funds.

Investors flocked to safe-haven assets. Treasury funds took in money for the 10th straight week, adding $1.6 billion to funds focused on U.S. government debt. Precious-metals commodity funds took in $609 million in new money, their sixth straight week of inflows. Relatively low-risk money-market funds took in $1.7 billion during the week, Lipper said.

Investment-grade bond funds posted $1.1 billion in outflows. The funds have now posted outflows in 12 of the past 13 weeks, the data showed.

High-yield funds were about flat for the week, taking in $65 million. International and global debt funds posted $356 million in outflows over the period, their 13th straight week of outflows, according to Lipper.

Overall, taxable bond funds sold in the United States attracted $109 million in new cash during the period, marginally adding to a fourth straight week to those funds' streak of inflows, data from the research service showed.

While mutual fund investors took $2.3 billion out of taxable-bond funds, ETFs took about the same amount in, according to Lipper.

Investors saw some bets worth taking during a week of strong U.S. economic data, for instance in a report Wednesday showing U.S. industrial production in January rose by the most in 14 months.

Energy-company funds attracted new money for the second straight week. Oil prices climbed, too, bolstering views the long-battered energy sector has finally hit bottom. Energy-sector funds took in $785 million in new cash during the week, Lipper said.

The Lipper fund flow data is compiled from reports issued by U.S.-domiciled mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.

The following is a broad breakdown of the flows for the week, including exchange-traded funds (in $ billions):

Sector Flow Chg Pct of Assets($ Count

($ blns) Assets blns)

All Equity Funds -5.665 -0.12 4,720.428 12,013

Domestic Equities -3.645 -0.11 3,328.600 8,559

Non-Domestic Equities -2.019 -0.15 1,391.828 3,454

All Taxable Bond Funds 0.109 0.01 2,133.328 6,092

All Money Market Funds 1.683 0.07 2,406.727 1,180

All Municipal Bond Funds 0.669 0.18 368.771 1,507

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Chris Reese)

---

Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

---

You May Also Be Interested In

• Shein launches up to $1.8 billion Hong Kong IPO
• Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill two people, including 4-year-old boy, medics say
• Health of Norway's king deteriorates while in hospital, palace says