Bonds, Money Market Funds Draw Funds in July

August 31, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Cash flows to the nation's equity mutual funds were considerably more bearish in July, with a net outflow of $1.23 billion compared with a near $11 billion inflow in June.

Cash flow into domestic stock funds was a net $2.40 billion in July, compared with cash flow of $9.74 billion in June. Meanwhile world equity funds had an outflow of $3.63 billion in July, a dramatic turnaround compared with an inflow of $1.08 billion the month before, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Bond funds benefited from the equity trends, with taxable bond funds gaining $7 billion in net inflows during the month, compared with just $1.58 billion in June. Municipal bond funds gained $2.33 billion in net inflows versus an inflow of just $598 million the previous month.

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Assets of money market mutual funds increased by a stunning $17.08 billion to $2.070 trillion in July. However money market funds offered primarily to institutions suffered a $1.19 billion outflow during the month.

The combined assets of the nation’s mutual funds decreased by 0.7% to $6.895 trillion in July.

Help-Wanted Advertising Index Flat in July

August 30, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Conference Board's Help-Wanted Advertising Index, a measure of the US job market, remained flat in July.

The figure now stands at 58, the same as June, but much lower than the 82 recorded for July last year.

Over the last three months, employment advertising fell in all nine US regions, with the deepest drops occurring in:

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  • West North Central, where help-wanted advertising fell by 21.2%,
  • Middle Atlantic, where it was down by 13%,
  • West South Central, where it decreased by 12.4%, and
  • East North Central, down by 10.8%.

The Conference Board surveys help-wanted advertising volume in 51 major newspapers across the country every month. Because advertising volume has proven to be sensitive to labor market conditions, this measure provides a gauge of change in the local, regional and national supply of jobs.

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