The final week of May ended with US lawmakers voting to lift the country’s debt ceiling, markets assigning a one-in-three chance that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in mid-June and the price of oil testing 18-month lows. Against this backdrop, flows into all EPFR-tracked Equity Funds hit a 17-week high on the back of record-setting inflows to Technology Sector Funds and China Equity Funds absorbed nearly $5 billion.
Amidst increasingly stark warnings of economic chaos if the current standoff over the US federal debt ceiling is not resolved, EPFR-tracked US Bond Funds pulled in another $8.1 billion going into the final week of May as they recorded their 21st consecutive inflow.
Worries about the impact a two-pronged credit squeeze, driven by quantitative tightening and the pressure on regional bank loan books, will have on the US economy kept investors in a defensive frame of mind during the week ending May 17.
Turmoil in the US banking industry has persisted into the second quarter, with interest rate hikes, skittish depositors and the scramble for tighter regulation heaping more pressure on major banks. These constraints, as the New York Times suggests, could cause businesses to look elsewhere for loans. Hence, there is a chance that borrowers turn to non-traditional banking or “shadow banking” options that are less constrained by existing regulations. But where does this present an opportunity for investors? In Money Market Funds that invest primarily in short-term, low-risk debt.
A recession in the second half of the year, triggered by the impact of current interest rates on the real estate sector and the banks that lend to it, is a fearful scenario for investors. This was reflected in the flows for EPFR-tracked Sector Funds during the week ending May 10, with a combined $3.8 billion redeemed from Financial, Real Estate, Energy and Commodities Sector Funds.
How did markets react to the interest rate hikes from both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank? In a week where nonfarm payrolls in America reported a job increase way above the initial expectations, we use EPFR’s Fund Flows and Allocations data to deep dive into the latest investor sentiment trends.
EPFR fund flow data is trusted by leading media across the globe. Check out our May 2023 citations, featuring Nikkei Asia, Bloomberg and CNBC.
Investors were expecting quarter-point interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) in early May. They got them, along with the collapse of another American regional bank, a warning from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the US may not be able to pay its bills in June if the debt ceiling standoff persists and more violent protests against pension reform in France.
China and cash were by far and away the most popular asset classes during the fourth week of April as investors and markets braced for another round of rate hikes in early May.
According to CNN, annual inflation dropped in March 2023 for the ninth consecutive month, and grocery prices fell month-on-month for the first time since September 2020. While the CPI has cooled off – at least temporarily – investors are not treating the news as a green light for the road back to riskier asset classes. With fear far from banished, cash remains king.
