US sees flat equity fund returns at year-end Dec '15

Monthly Highlights - December 2015 Report

Key highlights:

Long-term mutual funds and ETFs attracted US$158 billion of net new investment in 2015, despite US$40 billion of outflows in December. Equity funds netted US$113 billion during the year, as US$203 billion of inflows to International Equity offset US$90 billion of net redemption from US stock funds. Assets in Equity, Hybrid, and Alternatives totaled US$10.1 trillion at year-end 2015.

US$44 billion of inflows to fixed income strategies was split between Taxable (+$24 billion) and Tax-Free (+US$20 billion) products in 2015. Monthly flows to Taxable Bond funds were mixed during the year, before outflows accelerated at year-end, with US$28.2 billion of net redemptions in December. As of December 2015, assets in bond funds totaled US$3.7 trillion.

Calendar-year returns for major US stock indices were mixed in 2015 and as a result average US Equity fund returns were relatively flat on the year at -0.55%. International stock indices were mostly negative on the year, as International Equity strategies in aggregate averaged -3.30% in 2015. Tax-Free Bond funds led calendar year returns among broad asset classes, generating a 3.03% average return during the year.

Net deposits to money market funds totaled US$35 billion in December. With annual net intake of US$15.5 billion, money market assets totaled US$2.6 trillion as of December 2015.