Americans rebounded from a weak holiday season and stepped up spending on retail goods in January. The latest government report on retail sales pointed to a slowly improving economy. Retail sales rose at a seasonally adjusted 0.BOSTON – Retail investors, burned by two market crashes in a decade, have shunned stocks for the longest stretch in more than 23 years, upsetting the balance of power in the $10.5 trillion mutual-fund industry.
Bond funds attracted more money than their equity counterparts in 30 straight months through June, according to the Investment Company Institute, a Washington-based trade group. Preliminary data show the trend continued in July, matching the streak from 1984 through 1987.
The shift is pressuring asset managers, especially equity-focused firms such as Janus Capital Group Inc. and Capital Group Cos., because bond funds charge about 20 percent less in fees. Among the big winners are bond specialist Pacific Investment Management Co. and Vanguard Group Inc., whose index stock funds have become popular alternatives to actively managed portfolios.
“Retail investors are still shocked by what has happened in the past two years,” James Kennedy, chief executive officer of fund manager T. Rowe Price Group Inc. in Baltimore, said in an interview last month after releasing second-quarter earnings that fell short of analysts’ estimates.
Bond funds attracted $559 billion industrywide in the 30 months through June, according to ICI. Investors pulled $209.4 billion from domestic equity funds and $24.4 billion from funds that buy non-U.S. stocks.
Stocks fell 26 percent including reinvested dividends during the period, as tracked by the Standard Poor’s 500 Index. Bonds returned 16 percent, based on Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.
