Mutual-Fund Investors Pull Out $10.95 Billion
An estimated $10.95 billion was pulled from long-term mutual funds in the latest week, according to the Investment Company Institute.</br></br>The outflows came on declines in bond, hybrid and domestic-equities funds, offsetting gains in foreign-equities and municipal funds, the ICI said.</br></br>Despite some recent inflows of cash, the funds haven't yet come close to recovering from a six-week streak of steeper outflows, when investors retreated from a volatile stock market amid concerns about an uncertain economic outlook and worries about the debt load in the U.S. and Europe.</br></br>For the week ended Oct. 5, equity funds had outflows of $3.79 billion, compared with outflows of $6.59 billion in the prior week. Investors pulled $4.29 billion from U.S. equities and added $498 million to foreign funds.</br></br>Meanwhile, ICI reported bond funds had outflows of $5.8 billion, compared with prior-week inflows of $3.48 billion. Investors withdrew $6.24 billion from taxable funds, while flows into municipal funds totaled $444 million.