Mutual fund and ETF inflows: On their best run in six years

U.S. equity mutual funds and exchange-traded funds posted a seventh straight week of inflows — their longest winning run since a nine-week stretch that ended in the forth quarter of 2004 — according to data released today by EPFR Global, an industry data provider. Year-to-date flows into the funds are still in negative territory, losing $6.9 billion to outflows, but they have taken in about $14 billion over the past six weeks. With Japan’s export story kicking into high gear — exports in February were up 45% year-over-year — more money has also begun to flow into Japanese equity funds as of late, according to EPFR Global. Japanese equity funds have now posted inflows for 13 consecutive weeks, their longest winning run since a 27-week streak that ended in the second quarter of 2006. Year-to-date, Japanese funds have absorbed $2.4 billion of net inflows.