The EPFR Exchange Podcast

China clearly holds the crown among Emerging Market Equity markets when it comes to attracting fund flows this year. In the struggling Developed Market universe, meanwhile, Japan is breaking free of the pack. Japan Equity Funds have recorded inflows 11 of the past 12 weeks, and Japan Dividend and ESG Funds have done even better with flows to the former picking up significantly in mid-March and those to Japan ESG Funds lofting off a...

Investors have viewed Emerging Markets with a "glass half full" approach so far this year despite alarming headwinds for key actors. EM Equity Funds have brought in money this year while their Developed Markets counterparts have seen outflows. Kirsten Longbottom and Cameron Brandt from EPFR discussed key themes and shifts taking place in Emerging Markets with R Burns McKinney, managing director and senior portfolio manage...

To kickoff our relaunch – twice monthly episodes where we feature an expert guest and focus in on specific themes or trends – integral members of our research team, Kirsten Longbottom and Cameron Brandt, invited Domestic Equities Portfolio Manager and the Head of ESG Strategy at Trillium Asset Management, Elizabeth Levy to join us on the EPFR Exchange and talk all things ESG. From a theme often referred to as “pixie dust” for fund ...

The money market industry has consistently struggled to pry money out of the banking sector with not offering a FDIC insurance guarantee... until recently.  
What are taxable US government money market fund doing with the rivers of cash flowing in?  Does this apply to just US-dedicated funds or other regions? Cam talks to repurchase agreement (repos) and short term US treasuries, while Kirsten covers Financials Sector Funds. We...

Investors are reacting to concerns of an economic slowdown by rushing into liquidity... EPFR-tracked Money Market Funds posted a 155-week high with US-dedicated funds pulling in $100 million in each of the past two weeks. To support this, data from EPFR’s iMoneyNet offering shows that the AUM of taxable US MM Funds has moved past the $5 trillion milestone. Recession fears are picking up despite general consensus that the Fed has &q...

• Optimism about the duration of the current US tightening cycle has ebbed. The revised assumptions are worked in favor of short-term US treasury funds while investors move away from high yield bond funds.
• Activity at the sector level highlights some of the subplots as overall flows favor China over US Equity Funds.
• During bouts of uncertainty last year and into this year, we've been surprised by the absence of flows into prec...

Here’s what Cam and Kirsten reflected on:

• Very few people doubt that China will have an economic rebound later this year, but how soon and deep is up for debate.
• Sino-US tensions… What does the growth profile look like for China if it is disengaged from the US?
  • Pullback on both sides - Biden administration seemingly more comfortable with less globalization
  • How did that play into flows for Commodities and Energy Sector Funds? 

In this special episode, EPFR Quantitative Researcher Azalea Micottis joins Director of Research Cameron Brandt to discuss her latest insight on Japan and retail flows. They reflect on a recently published Off the Wire piece looking at the flows coming out of Bond Funds dedicated to long-term Japanese government bonds. To hear about several of EPFR's quantitative strategies and the signals those strategies are generating, list...

We start off this episode with an overview of 2022 fund flow trends. These included fixed income investors gravitated towards ETFs and passive funds during a volatile year, investors being quick to pencil in a post zero-Covid policy rebound in China and a growing willingness to “fight the Fed” and invest as if US interest rates will peak sooner rather than later. Digging into the latest week, marked by central bank decisions on bot...

This week, Cam and Kirsten talk about... 

• How China's rebounding economy is good news for global growth and Europe's economy
• Continued optimism for the US Fed Reserve to stop hiking rates
• Bond Funds and specifically Inflation Protected Bond Fund Flows giving insight into what consensus investors have on the inflation fight.
• The drivers behind the $135 billion that flowed into Money Market Funds over the past four weeks.  ...

In this special edition, Kirsten is joined by EPFR’s CEO Todd Willits, who will comment on the company’s recent rebrand and what this exciting change entails for the firm and its customers in the months to come.

For over 20 years, EPFR has built a reputation for providing data expertise to customers and media from across the globe, and we will discuss with Todd why EPFR is ‘the intelligence behind intelligent decisions’. Besides, as...

Cam and Kirsten talk about how investors steered large sums into Bond Funds dedicated to the US and Europe while exiting Inflation-Protected Bond Funds, and showed optimism about China’s post-Covid despite the recent rise in case numbers. Listen in for more on Emerging Markets, Europe Equity and Bonds, and China Sector Funds.

If you have a question about this episode, want to request a demo of our data, or talk to an EPFR expert tod...

A mixed batch of macroeconomic data and guidance from earnings reports gave Bond Funds a boost despite it hard to find investors’ optimistic at large. Falling inflation, feeling of tightening doing its job to check economic activity and the selloff of bonds last year has helped this asset class in the start of 2023. The band that the Bank of Japan is using to try and control 10-year Japanese Government Bond issues has markets tense...

Cam and Kirsten reviewed some top highlights from 2022 and looked for any signs pointing in the right direction from the data in the week ending Jan 4. As China casts a big shadow, should we start viewing Emerging Markets as sort of EM vs EM ex-China? What about Frontier Markets vs Frontier Markets ex-Vietnam? Supply chain reallocation stories are popping up for Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Philippines in the Asia region, with Mex...