Global money market funds draw big weekly inflows on investor caution

(Reuters) – Global money market funds drew big inflows in the week to July 26, as investors were cautious ahead of major central banks’ interest rate decisions and braced for the second-quarter corporate earnings results.

According to Refinitiv Lipper data, global money market funds drew investments worth a net $38.74 billion in the week ended July 26, the biggest amount since July 5.

The Federal Reserve and European Central Bank raised interest rates earlier this week, while on Friday, the Bank of Japan made its yield curve control policy more flexible, signalling that it is shifting away from years of ultra-loose monetary policy.

The U.S. and European money market funds attracted purchases worth $24.62 billion and $11.84 billion, respectively, on a net basis. Meanwhile, Asian funds recorded about $231 million outflows in the week.

Global equity funds drew about $1.3 billion worth of inflows after witnessing a weekly outflow of $2.2 billion the previous week.

Materials, financials, and consumer staples sector funds received $667 million, $627 million and $387 million in inflows, respectively. Meanwhile, tech funds faced its first weekly outflow in four weeks, worth about $1.57 billion.

Investors were also net buyers of global bond funds as they poured about $6.06 billion, which extended inflows into a fifth straight week.

Corporate and government bond funds obtained $2.32 billion and $318 million, respectively, in inflows.

Data for commodity funds showed investors withdrew about $227 million from energy funds. They also disposed of about $34 million worth of precious metal funds in their ninth weekly net selling in a row.

Meanwhile, data for 24,115 emerging market funds showed bond funds received $1.14 billion, the biggest amount in three weeks, while equity funds had a third weekly net purchase worth about $157 million.

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