Flows into EPFR-tracked Emerging Markets Equity Funds during the third week of January climbed to their highest level since mid-1Q21 as investors positioned themselves for China’s much anticipated economic rebound and, the anti-inflation rhetoric of the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) notwithstanding, an early end to the current interest rate cycles in the US and Europe. Investors also steered $2.5 billion – a 101-week high – into Emerging Markets Bond Funds.
This blog will examine the impact the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has had on global energy markets and the calls investors have made during 2022.
Over $110 billion – a 131-week high – flowed into EPFR-tracked Money Market Funds during the week ending Jan. 4 as investors surveyed an investment landscape still being reshaped by inflation, tighter monetary policy and geopolitical forces.
The final week of 2022 saw EPFR-tracked Bond Funds post consecutive weekly outflows for the first time since mid-October, capping a year when the overall group smashed its previous outflow record as central banks scrambled to contain inflation running at multi-decade highs.
Behind the headline number, however, was a marked shift from active to passive management.
A final look to EPFR-tracked equity funds in December 2022, with alternative, balanced, bond and money market funds experiencing significant redemptions as investors grapple with a highly uncertain outlook for the first half of next year.
Overall, the second week of December 2022 saw all Equity Funds record a collective inflow of $17.9 billion while Bond Funds absorbed $2.3 billion.
Given the raft of unsettling news and data thrown at them during the second week of July, investors showed considerable fortitude.
Against a backdrop of market volatility, slowing economic growth in Europe and North America, gasoline prices and mortgage rates in the US firmly above $5 a gallon and 5%, respectively, continued fighting in Ukraine and ongoing Covid-related disruptions to China-based supply chains, investors pulled over $45 billion from EPFR-tracked Equity, Bond, Alternative and Balanced Funds during the third week of June.
The Northern hemisphere’s summer solstice, which occurs on June 21, marks the day when it is light for the longest period. In the week preceding that date, however, investors could be excused for thinking the solstice marks the period of maximum darkness. The US Federal Reserve’s first 75-basis points rate hike since 1994, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine moving into its 17th week, Chinese authorities scrambling to contain a ‘ferocious’ outbreak of Covid in Beijing and an emergency meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) kept global markets firmly on the back foot during the week ending June 15.
EPFR-tracked Equity Funds extended their longest run of outflows since 3Q19 during the week ending May 18 as slowing global growth, tighter monetary policy in the US, war in Ukraine and widespread lockdowns in China kept investors on the defensive. Bond, Money Market, Balanced and Alternative Funds also recorded outflows going into the second half of May.