US Equity Funds Finally Break 33-Week Hex
By: The long losing streak for US equity mutual funds is finally over, and it ended pretty much right on cue.
After showing outflows for 33 consecutive weeks, domestic funds finally saw net inflows for the period ended Dec. 21, according to data from the Investment Company Institute. Though the inflow total was a relatively paltry $335 million, any good coach will tell you a win is a win.
Curiously, the data confirming the end of investors fleeing US funds came out shortly after I filed a piece yesterday headlined “US Stock Funds Could Be Back After Sitting Out 2010 Rally.” The main thrust of the piece was that investment pros were looking at US funds to participate in a widely expected 2011 stock market rally though they’d been treated as poison this year.
Investors instead piled money into bond and non-US funds all year. Indeed, US equity funds represented just a fraction of the total $3.94 billion in inflows to mutual funds last week.
Any good coach also will tell you that one win does not a streak make, but at least it’s a start.
