Junk mutual funds, ETFs add $1.72 billion for week ended June 12

By Abigail W. Adams

Portland, Me., June 13 – High-yield mutual funds and exchange-traded funds – considered a reliable barometer of overall liquidity trends in the junk market – saw a $1.718 billion inflow for the week ended Wednesday, according to fund-flow statistics generated by AMG Data Services Inc.

The inflow breaks a recent streak of outflows.

It was preceded by the record setting outflow of $3.22 billion for the week ended June 5, which was the largest of 2019.

It also reverses a growing trend of outflows in recent weeks.

Junk funds saw an outflow of $1.27 billion for the week ended May 29.

While there was a modest inflow of $4 million for the week ended May 22, the inflow was preceded by what was previously the largest outflow of 2019 – $2.57 billion left the space for the week ended May 15.

Of the seven outflows recorded in 2019, five of them have occurred since late April.

The $2.57 billion outflow was preceded by an outflow of $212 million for the week ended May 8.

Funds saw a modest inflow of $21 million for the week ended May 1.

The modest inflow was preceded by an outflow of $521 million for the week ended April 24 – the first outflow in seven weeks.

Prior to the week ended April 24, the last outflow was for the week ended March 6 when $1.91 billion left the space.

The March 6 outflow broke a streak of six consecutive inflows, which included the record-setting inflow of $3.86 billion for the week ended Feb. 6 – the largest inflow the space had seen since December 2016.

While recent outflows have eroded the cumulative amount, fund flows in 2019 are still net positive after record outflows in 2018.

The cumulative inflow is now $8.94 billion in the 23 weeks thus far, according to a Prospect News analysis of the reports by the Arcata, Calif.-based unit of Thomson Reuters Corp.’s Lipper analytics division.

For the past 10 weeks, funds have seen six inflows and four outflows.

There have been 16 inflows and seven outflows in the 23 weeks of 2019, according to the Prospect News analysis.

IG corporates see inflows

Among other asset classes, investment-grade corporate funds saw a substantial inflow of $4.021 billion.

The inflow is the second consecutive week funds have added money with $924 million entering the space for the week ended June 5.

The inflows have pared losses from the record-setting outflow of $5.1 billion, which left the space for the week ended May 29.

The outflow was the largest since 2015, according to a market source.

High-grade funds also saw $756 million leave the space for the week ended May 22.

Prior to that, funds had seen a steady streak of inflows.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.