Retail investors pulled out $631 million from high yield bond funds and ETFs in the last week of April, according to Lipper. This was the fourth weekly reversal, and dwarfed the prior week’s $250 million inflow.
According to S&P LCD, “the trailing four week average is essentially zeroed out at positive $9 million, from positive $290 million last week and a peak at positive $844 million in the first week of March.”
LCD noted the positive market conditions caused total high yield fund and ETF value to be positive $671 in the last week of April, equivalent to 0.4% of assets, to $184.8 billion.
Retail flows to high yield loan funds and ETFs turned negative in mid April (Risk Management: Flows to Loan Funds and ETFs Turn Negative, April 24).
The high yield bond market remains open and active, despite the volatility of retail flows. There are a couple clouds on the horizon – the average clearing yield is up over a half point from last month, and month-on-month volumes are down slightly – but nonetheless, the year appears to have gotten off to a strong start for the junk market.