In November, long-term U.S. funds saw strong interest from investors for the seventh month in a row, pulling in a net total of $80 billion. Despite market ups and downs, many investors were hopeful about potential interest rate cuts and became cautious around popular AI-related stocks. Just like previous months, the most money went into taxable bond funds and international stocks, while U.S. stock funds made a small comeback after months of losses. At the same time, technology and crypto-related funds started to lose some appeal.

Taxable bond funds were the biggest winners in November, attracting $51 billion in new money. This marked their seventh month straight of strong inflows, each over $50 billion. Over the past three years, these funds have grown by 38%, mostly in safer areas like intermediate-core bonds, ultrashort bonds, and short-term bonds. Investors preferred short-term bonds as they tried to manage risks tied to inflation and rising long-term interest rates.

U.S. equity funds finally saw a small net gain of $3.4 billion in November, ending a six-month streak of outflows. Most of this was driven by passive investments into large-blend funds, which include well-known, stable companies. Large value funds also saw renewed interest, with nearly $3 billion in inflows—especially the iShares S&P 500 Value ETF (IVE), which had its best month ever with $4 billion in new investments and a 10% growth rate.

International stock funds continued to perform well, bringing in $16.2 billion in November. This was their biggest monthly gain in over three years. The majority of that came from foreign large-blend funds, mostly through passive strategies. Diversified emerging market funds also had a strong showing, adding nearly $6 billion—their highest inflow since March 2022—again led by passive investing.

Sector-specific stock funds took a hit in November, losing about $750 million. This broke a six-month streak where they gained over $40 billion. However, healthcare sector funds saw a rebound with over $3 billion in inflows, helping to close the $72 billion gap left by previous outflows since late 2022. In contrast, tech sector funds lost money for the first time since April, even though they’ve brought in $21 billion so far this year. Blockchain and digital asset-focused equity funds also saw losses, despite growing more than 40% over the past year.

Investor attitudes shifted slightly in November. Riskier leveraged equity funds brought in $6.4 billion—their second-highest month ever—after six months of outflows. On the flip side, inverse equity funds, which profit when markets fall, lost $1.6 billion in outflows. This was their first monthly loss since February and one of the biggest on record. The data suggests that more investors are getting back into the market as stock prices continue to climb.

Digital asset funds had a rough November, with record-breaking outflows of $3.2 billion. Their overall size shrank by over 20%, dropping to $153 billion. The main reason was falling prices for key cryptocurrencies—Bitcoin dropped 17%, and Ethereum fell by 21%. Combined with withdrawals from these funds, this led to the worst month ever for digital asset investments, with an organic growth rate of negative 1.7%.

Keywords: fund flows, taxable bond funds, U.S. equity funds, international equity funds, sector equity funds, digital asset funds, crypto outflows, interest rate cuts, passive investing, inflation concerns, leveraged equity, inverse equity strategies.