U.S. money market funds see heavy inflows for second week: Lipper

(Reuters) – U.S. money market funds saw strong demand for the second week in a row as concerns over higher U.S. bond yields and rising COVID-19 cases in Europe sent investors to safer avenues.

The prospect of losses for U.S. banks, following hedge fund Archegos Capital’s default on margin calls, also had market participants concerned.

U.S. money market funds received a net $50.35 billion in the week to March 31, after an over $60 billion inflow in the previous week, data from Refinitiv Lipper showed.

On the other hand, investments into U.S. equity funds tumbled to $4.62 billion, a 67% decline from the previous week, as U.S. Treasury yields surged. U.S. growth funds, which house most of the high-flying technology-related stocks, faced outflows of about $3.49 billion.

Graphic: Fund flows into U.S. equities bonds and money market

Higher yields tend to hurt the flow of money into growth sectors, as they lower the present value of the future cash flows of growth stocks.

However, value funds, which have cyclical sectors such as financials and industrials, attracted inflows on hopes that swift vaccinations, a massive U.S. fiscal stimulus program and U.S. President Joe Biden’s push to improve infrastructure would aid a faster recovery.

The financials and industrials sectors saw inflows of $1.76 billion and $1.04 billion, respectively, the data showed.

Graphic: Fund flows into U.S. growth and value funds

U.S bond funds received inflows of $8.5 billion last week. U.S. taxable bond funds saw $7.37 billion worth of net buying, while U.S. municipal bond funds had $1.1 billion.

Graphic: Flows into U.S. equity sector funds

U.S. high-yield bonds lured inflows of over $1 billion after witnessing heavy outflows in the previous week.

Graphic: Flows into U.S. bond funds

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