For the sixth week in seven, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets (including those of conventional funds and ETFs), injecting $3.9 billion for Lipper's fund flows week ended February 5, 2020. Fund investors were net purchasers of taxable fixed-income funds (+$7.0 billion), equity funds (+$3.4 billion), and municipal bond funds (+$1.6 billion), but were net redeemers of money market funds (-$8.1 billion) this week.
Market Wrap-Up
For the fund flows week ended February 5, 2020, investors cautiously turned their attention away from the deadly coronavirus and focused on rumors of a potential vaccine and better-than-expected economic and Q4 corporate earnings news. All three broadly followed U.S. indices witnessed whipsaw movements in their values during the fund flows week, but ended up posting new record closes at the end of the week. The Nasdaq Composite Price Only Index (+2.52%) posted the strongest returns of the broadly followed U.S. indices for the fund flows week, followed by the Russell 2000 Price Only Index (+1.98%), while the S&P 500 Price Only Index (+1.87%) was the relative laggard. Overseas, the Xetra DAX Total Return Index (+1.03%) posted the only plus-side returns of the often-followed broad-based global indices, while the Shanghai Composite Price Only Index (-6.27%) suffered the largest declines.
On Thursday, January 30, all three major U.S. stock market indices closed higher on the day despite the World Heath Organization declaring the coronavirus a public emergency (but expressing confidence in China's response to the illness). U.S. stocks rallied at the end of the day on a wave of positive Q4 earnings reports from companies such as Coca-Cola (KO) and Microsoft (MSFT). However, as might be expected given the possible impacts of a pandemic, near-month gold prices rallied on safe haven demand. On Friday, January 31, stocks were pummeled after President Donald Trump declared a
