Investing January 23, 2006

Investors Continue to Favor Foreign Stocks

January 23, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - US mutual funds grew by $11.3 billion in December, with World stock funds gaining $17.7 billion, according to estimates from Lipper Inc.
Reported by

Reuters reports that Lipper data shows domestic stock funds saw an estimated $8.7 billion of outflows last month, compared with inflows of $4.3 billion in November.   International stock funds saw their 24th consecutive month of positive flows, Lipper said. The report by Lipper senior research analyst Andrew Clark said those funds continued to benefit from good performance of foreign stock exchanges, driven in part by a strong US dollar.

Bond funds had estimated net outflows of $3.5 billion, following a $2 billion outflow in November, according to Lipper estimates.

Money market funds had inflows of $40.6 billion last month.   Lipper said that money market funds have now seen positive flows for seven of the last eight months and are in their 28th month of a turnaround in flows that started in September 2003.

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