(Reuters) – Global money market funds experienced their highest weekly inflows in nearly six months, with investors cautious about the health of the U.S. economy and concerned that further rate cuts this year could signal deeper economic troubles.
Investors bought safer money market funds totaling about $98.32 billion, LSEG Lipper data showed, marking their largest weekly net purchase since April 3.
A weak consumer sentiment report last week raised concerns among investors about the health of the labor market, prompting worries that the Fed’s rare 50 basis point rate cut the previous week was in response to a sharp economic slowdown.
“Despite market expectations for an unwind of the huge pile of money market assets to provide a tailwind as it flows back to risk assets, the category has continued to garner flows,” said Thomas Poullaouec, Head of Multi-Asset Solutions APAC at T. Rowe Price.
“Perhaps the start of rate cuts could entice some investors to come off the sideline, but with a gradual path priced in, it is unlikely to have a huge impact.”
The LSEG data showed investors offloaded a net $10.43 billion worth of global equity funds during the week, booking the sharpest weekly outflow since June 12.
Although U.S. equity funds saw $22.43 billion in net sales, investors actively bought European and Asian equity funds, adding $5.88 billion and $5.29 billion respectively.
Global bond funds attracted investors for the 40th consecutive week, gaining a net $13.74 billion.
Dollar-denominated short-term government bond funds drew$3.21 billion, the highest in four weeks. Investors put $1.68 billion into high-yield and $1.11 billion into Euro-denominated global bond funds, respectively.
Gold and other precious metal funds were popular for the seventh successive week, securing $1.11 billion worth of net purchases. Energy funds, meanwhile, witnessed $128 million worth of outflows, the second successive week of net sales.
Data covering 29,559 emerging market funds showed investors exited equity funds for a sixteenth successive week, worth $261 million on a net basis. By contrast, bond funds gained $1.22 billion, registering a fourteenth consecutive week of inflows.
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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