US stock funds best week since May '09-ICI Stock Market Today Shares, gold , mortgage rates

US stock funds best week since May '09-ICI ; Domestic U.S. equities took in an estimated net $4.9 billion in the week ended Feb. 9, their second best performance on record, data from the Investment Company Institute showed on Wednesday.

The weekly net inflows for this sub-sector were the best since mid-May 2009 according ICI, U.S. mutual fund industry trade group. This was also more than three-times the amount of net new cash committed to the sector versus the prior week.

The U.S. domiciled mutual fund sector -- equities, fixed income, hybrid funds -- took in a net $9.3 billion in new cash, the best overall performance since the week ended Oct. 20, 2010.

During the reporting period, the U.S. benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 stock index .SPX rose 1.29 percent. The index has surged over 27 percent since the Aug. 26 low as the U.S. economy has showed sparks of life that point to a sustainable recovery.

However, municipal bond funds remain a blemish.

For a 14th straight week, muni bond funds suffered outflows with the latest net redemptions totaling $1.46 billion. Since mid-November, investors have pulled an estimated $36.2 billion from these funds on concerns about the perilous condition of
local and state government finances. ICI, a U.S. mutual fund industry trade group, reported ICI started to track weekly fund flows at the start of 2007.

The following table shows a breakdown of the ICI flows for the past three weeks (all figures in millions of dollars):
Estimated flows to long-term mutual funds:

1/26/2011     2/2/2011      2/9/2011
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Total Equity      5,111        1,760         5,849
Domestic         3,242        1,414         4,921
Foreign          1,869          346           928
Hybrid            1,941        1,662         1,885
Total Bond          742          577         1,561
Taxable          3,447        1,749         3,027
Municipal       -2,704       -1,173        -1,466
==================================================
Total             7,794        3,998         9,295

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