US funds market monthly highlights - January 2016

Monthly Highlights from the January 2016 Report

Net redemptions from long-term mutual funds and ETFs totaled US$8.2 billion in January. Passive funds continued to drive demand for stock and bond exposure, attracting $16 billion during the month.

Index Equity mutual funds netted +US$20.6 billion in January, while monthly net redemptions from Equity ETFs totalled US$13.7 billion. Among active funds, outflows from US Equity totalled US$23 billion during the month. Active International Equity attracted US$3.6 billion on continued demand for foreign large-cap exposure and managed futures strategies. A selloff in stock markets sparked by concerns in the global economic environment sent one-month average US and International Equity fund returns sharply lower at -5.8% and -5.5%, respectively.

Bond funds attracted net new investment of US$4.3 billion in January onUS $12.1 billion of net inflows to index ETFs. Tax-Free Bond funds netted US$5.2 billion on the month (including US$4.5 billion to active funds), while returning an average 1.0%. Government-oriented investment strategies led among taxable products, attracting a net US$9.9 billion and returning an average 1.3% in January.

Monthly net redemptions from money-market funds totalled US$21 billion.