Mutual fund inflows $502M in November

Mutual fund inflows slowed substantially in November, as investors poured more money into exchange traded funds, according a report from the Financial Research Corp. Combined net inflows into all mutual funds were $502 million in November, down from $19 billion during the year-ago period. The International/Global funds category had the highest net inflows, with $6.3 billion, followed by government funds, which took in $950 million. Investors pulled $5.9 billion from domestic equity funds, which make up 58%, or $4.9 billion, of the $8.4 trillion held in U.S. mutual funds. Investors withdrew $4.1 billion, $2.8 billion and $1.5 billion from Boston-based Fidelity Investments and New York-based JPMorgan Asset Management and Baltimore-based Legg Mason, respectively. State Street Global Advisors was helped by a net inflow of $5.7 billion into its SPDR Trust ETF, which tracks the Standard &Poor 500 index, ranked first among money managers with $6.1 billion in net inflows. American Funds of Los Angeles and The Vanguard Group Inc. of Malvern, Pa. followed with net inflows of $4.7 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively.