Tiptoeing into the Christmas holidays

There was a lot for investors to digest going into the final days of February. The implications of the US Supreme Court’s ruling on President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The chances of a US strike on Iran. The risks posed by Anthropic’s Claude AI for existing software business models. The possibility that the recent partial gating of a major private capital fund signals wider problems.

Both Physical Gold and Cryptocurrency Funds recorded outflows in early February as flows shifted to fund groups offering income, liquidity or both. Investors committed over $85 billion into Money Market Funds, added to Municipal Bond Funds latest inflow streak, lifted flows into Dividend Equity Funds to an eight-week high and steered fresh money into Autocallable Income funds for the 33rd straight week.

Equity funds dedicated to the Chinese mainland posted another record outflow in the fourth week of 2026 as authorities tap the brakes on a stock market rally that started 15 months ago. The latest reporting period ended with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closing within 290 points of its peak before the mid-2015 correction.