Investors were expecting quarter-point interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) in early May. They got them, along with the collapse of another American regional bank, a warning from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the US may not be able to pay its bills in June if the debt ceiling standoff persists and more violent protests against pension reform in France.
China and cash were by far and away the most popular asset classes during the fourth week of April as investors and markets braced for another round of rate hikes in early May.
Bitcoin’s next “halving” is expected to take place in 2024. These events take place when Bitcoin miners have added 210,000 “blocks” to the blockchain leger and are marked by a halving of the Bitcoins that miners get for adding each block. Given the implications for future supplies of Bitcoin, these ‘halvings’ usually push Bitcoin’s price significantly higher, both in the run up to the event and for several months afterwards. This time around seems – so far – to be conforming to the pattern: Bitcoin’s price has risen steadily in recent weeks.
From time to time, EPFR’s clients alert us to anomalous flows into exchange traded funds (ETFs) that occur on a specific day and for a specific fund. Given our awareness of these types of flows, and the granularity of our databases, EPFR’s quant team decided it was high time they dove into our ETF database and conducted a systematic analysis of these events.
US Money Market Funds kicked off April by recording their fourth straight inflow in excess of $50...
Flows into EPFR-tracked Emerging Markets Equity Funds during the third week of January climbed to their highest level since mid-1Q21 as investors positioned themselves for China’s much anticipated economic rebound and, the anti-inflation rhetoric of the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) notwithstanding, an early end to the current interest rate cycles in the US and Europe. Investors also steered $2.5 billion – a 101-week high – into Emerging Markets Bond Funds.
Against a backdrop of market volatility, slowing economic growth in Europe and North America, gasoline prices and mortgage rates in the US firmly above $5 a gallon and 5%, respectively, continued fighting in Ukraine and ongoing Covid-related disruptions to China-based supply chains, investors pulled over $45 billion from EPFR-tracked Equity, Bond, Alternative and Balanced Funds during the third week of June.
Hopes that the impact of Covid’s Omicron variant will prove transitory, concern that it will not, and fears that inflation is here to stay whip-sawed global markets during the final days of November. Concerns about the latter issue were crystalized by recently reappointed US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s admission that price pressures could spur the Fed to accelerate the tapering of its asset purchases.
Rising prices and higher-than-expected earnings shaped investor sentiment during the third week of October. Most of the companies reporting their 3Q21 numbers surpassed expectations. nvestors responded by pouring nearly $25 billion into EPFR-tracked Equity Funds.
The first week of October saw US lawmakers sparring over the country’s debt ceiling, authorities in China scrambling to limit the wider damage property giant Evergrande’s debt crisis may cause, and central bankers from Canada to Poland wrestling with the tradeoff between economic growth and rising prices.
