By Jennifer Ablan
(Reuters) - Investors' appetite for risk-taking was on display in the latest week, as U.S.-based high-yield junk bond funds attracted more than $3 billion in the week ended Wednesday, their third consecutive week of inflows.
At the top of the credit spectrum, U.S.-based investment-grade corporate bond funds attracted over $3.2 billion in the same week, their fourth consecutive week of inflows, according to data released Thursday by Refinitiv's Lipper.
Municipal bond funds continued to be main attractors of investors assets, taking in, collectively, $1.7 billion and experiencing their 25th consecutive week of net inflows, their strongest uninterrupted inflows streak since the 54-week run that ended on Oct. 12, 2016, noted Tom Roseen, head of research services at Lipper.
For their part, retail investors remained cautious this week, being net redeemers of equity funds - outflows of $9.3 billion - while authorized participants continued to "put their collective foot to the metal, injecting a net $5 billion into equity ETFs (exchange-traded funds)," Roseen said.
"They were selective, however, padding the coffers of Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 with plus-$2.6 billion and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF with plus-$1.7 billion, while being net redeemers of SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (ASX:SPY) with $1.8 billion of cash withdrawals," he said.
Both groups embraced bond fund funds for the week, injecting $1.2 billion into funds and $5.4 billion into bond ETFs, Roseen said.