The world's biggest mutual fund keeps getting smaller.
Bill Gross's $251 billion Pimco Total Return Fund dropped more than $41 billion, or 14 percent of its assets, in the past four months through losses and investor withdrawals. The fund suffered $7.7 billion in net redemptions in August, Chicago- based researcher Morningstar Inc. said today in an e-mailed statement, the fourth straight month of withdrawals and the second highest amount this year.
Top managers from Gross to Jeffrey Gundlach and Dan Fuss have seen their funds shrink after
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke in May raised the possibility that the central bank would begin to scale back bond purchases. The
Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index, among the most widely used fixed-income benchmarks, declined 3.2 percent this year and fell almost 3 percent since May 22.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 2.87 percent at 12:04 p.m. New York time today from 1.93 percent on May 21, the day before Bernanke spoke. U.S. Treasuries lost 3.5 percent this year through yesterday, according to
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Largest Fund
In the past four months, investors redeemed about $26 billion from Pimco Total Return Fund, which became the world's largest mutual fund in 2009. The fund lost 3.9 percent this year through yesterday, trailing 86 percent of peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. During the past five years, the fund advanced 6.7 percent, putting it ahead of 87 percent of similarly managed funds.
An e-mail and phone call to Mark Porterfield, a spokesman for Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, weren't returned.
Investors pulled about $60 billion from U.S. bond funds in June, the biggest monthly redemptions in records going back to 1961, and $26.2 billion last month through Aug. 28, according to estimates from the Investment Company Institute. Pimco Total Return suffered $9.6 billion in redemptions in June, according to Morningstar.
Gundlach, Rivelle
Gundlach's $37 billion DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund had its third straight month of net withdrawals in August, as clients pulled $1.1 billion, according to Morningstar estimates. Since April 30, the fund has lost about 10 percent of its assets through investor redemptions and market losses, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gundlach's fund declined 1.2 percent this year through yesterday, putting it ahead of 86 percent of rivals, and returned 7 percent over the past three years, ahead of 97 percent of peers.
The $24 billion Metropolitan West Total Return Bond Fund, run by Tad Rivelle, lost 4 percent of its assets since April 30, and the $7.9 billion TCW Total Return Bond Fund, also managed by Rivelle, lost 17 percent of its assets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fuss's $21 billion Loomis Sayles Bond Fund, is down about 10 percent in assets.
(Bloomberg News)
