Junk mutual funds, ETFs see $212 million outflow for week ended May 8

By Abigail W. Adams

Portland, Me., May 9 – High-yield mutual funds and exchange-traded funds – considered a reliable barometer of overall liquidity trends in the junk market – saw an outflow of $212 million for the week ended Wednesday, according to fund-flow statistics generated by AMG Data Services Inc.

While not consecutive, the outflow was the second in recent weeks with the strong influx of money into the space beginning to wane.

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.

Funds have seen a steady streak of substantial inflows.

Inflows were $1.1 billion for the week ended April 17, $655 million for the week ended April 10, $2 billion for the week ended April 3, $590 million for the week ended March 27, $1.8 billion for the week ended March 20 and $1.04 billion for the week ended March 13.

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 also broke a streak of six consecutive inflows, which included the record-setting inflow of $3.86 billion for the week ended Feb. 6.

The inflow for the week ended Feb. 6 was the largest the space had seen since December 2016.

While funds saw record outflows in 2018, fund flows in 2019 have been net positive with a cumulative inflow of $14.26 billion in the 18 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 seven inflows and three outflows.

There have been 14 inflows and four outflows in the 18 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 $3.33 billion for the week ended Wednesday.

The large inflow follows a modest inflow of $375 million for the week ended May1, which was preceded by a massive inflow of $5.86 billion for the week ended April 24.

High-grade funds have seen a steady streak of inflows.

There was an inflow of $2.31 billion for the week ended April 17, $2.9 billion for the week ended April 3, $2.75 billion for the week ended March 27 and $5.14 billion for the week ended March 20.

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