Mutual Fund Inflows/Outflows

Recent Fund Flow Estimates
Date	Net Inflows/Outflows ($ Millions)
2 biz days ended May 21	-1,429
3 biz days ended May 17	8,392
2 biz days ended May 14	-473
3 biz days ended May 10	-4,483
2 biz days ended May 7	2,566
3 biz days ended May 3	4,047
2 biz days ended Apr. 30	3,207
3 biz days ended Apr. 26	6,663
2 biz days ended Apr. 23	-2,109
3 biz days ended Apr. 19	5,281
2 biz days ended Apr. 16	636
2 biz days ended Apr. 11	5,015
2 biz days ended Apr. 9	600
3 biz days ended Apr. 5	-11,032
Source: TrimTabs.com

Investors took more than $1.4 billion out of equity mutual funds during the two business days ended May 21, estimates TrimTabs.com, a firm that tracks fund inflows and outflows.

For the most recent period, U.S. equity funds saw outflows of $909 million. International funds, meanwhile, had outflows of $520 million, estimates TrimTabs.

For the two days ended May 21, the Nasdaq Composite rose 5.1%, the S&P 500 climbed 1.9% and the Dow increased 0.8%.

Why This Metric Matters Mutual funds are the biggest source of liquidity in the market, according to TrimTabs.com. When fund inflows slow or actually turn negative (outflows), then stock prices will likely turn downward as well. The stocks most heavily influenced by inflow changes are those that are most widely held by mutual funds, such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Cisco (CSCO) recently. TrimTabs.com computes its estimate of overall mutual fund inflows and outflows by tracking 534 equity funds. A definitive tally comes from the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund trade group, which tracks more than 4000 equity funds. ICI only reports its data once a month, about thirty days after the end of the last month it's considering. Because of the lag in the ICI data, TrimTabs.com's twice-weekly estimate is closely followed by the market.

How Often Updated on TSC Twice weekly, Monday and Wednesday

Historical Info The highest inflows recorded in the year 2000 came during the week ending Feb. 3, when inflows totaled $18.4 billion. Those inflows helped the market register big gains for the week, with the Nasdaq rallying almost 9% and the Dow rising about 3%. The largest outflow recorded for the year, $12.1 billion, was for the week ending Oct. 12. That week the Dow fell nearly 6.5% and the Nasdaq almost 9%.

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