The MarketsJuly 21, 2010

Skittish Investors Reverse Fund Flow May Trends

<h2>Investors who were skittish over the European sovereign debt crisis and whether the global economy would slide back into recession reversed course in May. </h2>

Reported by PLANSPONSOR staff

The latest fund flow data from Strategic Insight (SI), an Asset International company, said that in the process the nervous investors at least temporarily unraveled positive fund flows seen in the U.S. and Europe since April 2009.

SI said U.S. long-term funds saw net redemptions of $5 billion in May at the same time as long-term funds in Asia were reaping $15 billion in net inflows. Year to date, SI said the U.S. enjoyed $199 billion in net inflows.

According to the report, May flows by category were:

U.S. Equity, -$18.9 billion;
International/Global Equity, -$5.7 billion;
Mixed Allocation, -$1.9 billion;
Tax-Free Bond, $2.6 billion; and
Taxable Bond, $12 billion.

The top five mutual fund money managers in the U.S. in terms of assets in May were The Vanguard Group ($1.36 trillion), Fidelity Investments ($1.19 trillion), American Funds ($883 billion), BlackRock ($692 billion), and PIMCO/Allianz Global ($407 billion). SI said the top five had 44% of the U.S. market share, up from 42% a year earlier.

More information is at http://www.sionline.com/.