Junk funds see $37 million in inflows on the week, outflows still near year’s peak

By Abigail W. Adams

Portland, Me., Aug. 2 – High-yield mutual funds and exchange-traded funds – considered a reliable barometer of overall liquidity trends in the junk market – saw inflows over the past week ended Aug. 1, according to fund-flow statistics generated by AMG Data Services Inc.

However, the inflows did little to turn the tide on the year’s substantial outflows.

Funds saw inflows of $37 million in the week ending at market close Aug. 1, according to the weekly Lipper US Fund Flows report.

The inflow broke two consecutive weeks of outflows. Funds saw $548 million of cash depart during the week ending July 25 and $260 million in the week prior.

The losses came after a sizable $1.852 billion gain during the week ending July 11, according to a Prospect News analysis of the reports by the Arcata, Calif.-based unit of Thomson Reuters Corp’s Lipper analytics division.

Before that there was a $1.729 billion outflow during the week ended July 4, the third straight period of losses after $1.135 billion in the week to June 27 and $232 million before that.

The three weeks in the red came after a choppy period which saw the funds gain $324 million before the string of outflows began.

Preceding that, there was a big $2.420 billion outflow following a minimal $18 million withdrawal of cash.

In the week to May 23, the funds had added $261 million of cash but there were outflows of $0.542 billion and $0.755 billion in the preceding weeks and those followed a gain of $0.526 billion in the week ending May 2.

The funds suffered a large $2.489 billion loss the week before that and an even larger $2.971 billion inflow in the April 18 week.

The cumulative outflow for the year now totals about $19.22 billion.

For the past 11 weeks, the funds have seen three inflows and eight outflows.

There have been ten inflows and 21 outflows in the 31 weeks to date in 2018, according to the Prospect News analysis.

IG corporates see inflow

Among other asset classes, investment-grade corporate funds saw another solid week of inflows with $1.211 billion entering the space.

The gain follows inflows of $1.986 billion of investor cash in the week ending July 25, which came after a similarly sized inflow of $2.021 billion the week before.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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