An all-time record $77.4 billion flowed into U.S.-listed equity mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in January, according to TrimTabs Investment Research.
Also in January, net inflows to bond funds were estimated to exceed $40 billion, significantly above 2012's average monthly flows to bond funds of $27 billion, according to Strategic Insight, based on data provided by the Investment Company Institute and proprietary surveys of leading distributors and fund managers.
Strategic Insight said that it projects bond fund inflows to persist in the coming months, as investors holding $10 trillion of cash slowly search for income opportunities elsewhere.
Strategic Insight, a business intelligence provider the fund industry, reports that approximately $51 billion, or more than half, of the January net flows went into stock and balanced mutual funds, marking the largest monthly amount in more than a decade. Additional net inflows went to stock ETFs, the company said. These figures, the company said, suggest that U.S. investors are finally re-entering the stock market through mutual funds.
"In recent years, stock investors watched the rising stock market with either disbelief or regret. January flows data suggests that postelection assurance of political stability and tax rates combined with rising home prices, falling unemployment and fading memories of 2008 have helped investors overcome, at least for now, a state of investment anxiety," said Avi Nachmany, SI's director of research, in a statement.
