Matthew Lemieux reviews preliminary mutual fund flow numbers for the first quarter 2012 in this WebEx replay. Despite a stellar first quarter of performance some investors were still wary about jumping back in the market. Overall, U.S. conventional mutual funds posted net outflows of $2.7 billion, dragged down heavily by large outflows from both U.S. Diversified Equity funds (-$11.2 billion) and Money Market offerings (-$84.1 billion). Exchange-traded products fared much better pulling in $52.4 billion for the same period. Investors continued to focus heavily on fixed income products as both mutual and ETF bond funds recorded net inflows of roughly $100 billion.

Despite headlines trumpeting the return of equities, fixed income fund held their ground in Q1 and produced solid returns. Jeff Tjornehoj breaks down where the action was at and looks for conditions to improve for fixed income in the quarters ahead.

Equity Funds posted their best Q1 returns since Q1 1998, rising 11.97% for the quarter ended March 31, 2012. For the quarter, 81 of Lipper's 86 equity fund classifications posted positive returns. Investors put risk back in their portfolios. They bid up the prior quarter's laggards: India Region Funds (+22.63%), Science & Technology Funds (+20.26%), and Global Science & Technology Funds (+18.96%), while shunning Dedicated Short-Bias Funds (-16.31%), Commodities Specialty Funds (-2.06%), and Precious Metals Funds (-1.72%). Tom highlights Q1 trends in this WebEx presentation.

This quarter Jeff Tjornehoj discusses how the "risk-on" shift by bond investors sent High Yield Funds and Loan Participation Funds to the top of the performance tables in Q4. But lest we forget, 2011 was the one for record books for Treasuries and fortunes varied considerably among Lipper's many bond fund categories.

Tom Roseen reviews equity mutual fund performance trends for Q4 2011 and provides a summary for 2011 along with his outlook for Q1 2012 in this WebEx replay.

Sasha Franger discusses target date funds' equity exposure at the target date and beyond. She compares changes in equity exposure at the target date from 2008 to 2001, as well as, compares equity exposure in "to" and "through" target date series.

Matthew Lemieux reviews preliminary mutual fund flow numbers for the third quarter 2011 in this WebEx replay. In line with expectations after a disastrous quarter for fund performance, the conventional mutual fund business experienced preliminary quarterly outflows of $125.0 billion. Equity Funds as a whole accounted for roughly $82.9 billion of that as U.S. diversified products posted redemptions of over $70 billion alone. Taxable bond funds were not immune to the sell-off as inflows to the group were nearly flat--a meager $162 million. Investors moved away from higher yields as the previous quarter’s top flows attractor, Loan Participation funds, experienced outflows of $8.2 billion and High Current Yield products lost roughly $3.0 billion. Municipal bond funds offered a bit of a bright spot with quarterly inflows of $1.5 billion as flows for money market funds continued to be volatile with net quarterly redemptions of $43.8 billion.

Serious concerns on the fate of Greece, European banks, and even the euro itself sent Treasury-related categories to the top of the performance charts in Q3. The "risk-off" trade forced High Yield and Emerging Markets Debt groups plunging. Jeff highlights these and other trends in his WebEx presentation.

Equity Funds suffered their worst declines since Q4 2008, losing 17.44% for the quarter ended September 30, 2011. For the quarter, only 2 of Lipper's 86 equity fund classifications posted positive returns: Dedicated Short-Bias Funds (+29.82%) and Commodities Specialty Funds (+1.17%). World Equity Funds (-20.44%) lagged their Mixed Equity Funds (-10.08%), Sector Equity Funds (-15.36%), and U. S. Diversified Equity Funds (-16.67%) cohorts in Q3. Tom highlights Q3 trends in this WebEx presentation.

A five-week rally lifted equity funds to their best December gain (+6.43%) since 1999, contributing more than one-third of the 2010 one-year total return of 16.57%. For the quarter all but 1 of Lipper's 79 equity fund classifications posted positive returns. At the top of the equity funds leader board were the Diversified Leverage Funds (+23.22%), Natural Resources Funds (+21.16%), and Basic Materials Funds (+18.49%) classifications. Tom highlights Q4 trends and provides his outlook in this WebEx presentation.