Some $1.9 billion was pulled from Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co.’s largest bond fund last month, the most in two years and a possible indication investors are willing to take on more risk in stocks.
Bill Gross’ Pimco Total Return, which manages $256 billion in assets, lost 1.5% in November, its worst month since September 2008, according to preliminary fund flow data from Chicago-based fund tracker Morningstar Inc.
This was the first month money was pulled from the fund in two years.
Pimco’s outflow mirrored other bond indexes in November.
The Morningstar Intermediate-Term Bond Category, which recorded the largest inflows this year with more than $74 billion, lost $154 million in November, also the first month of net outflows in two years.
The Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index declined 0.57% in November.
The index benchmark is made up of U.S. Treasury bonds, corporate bonds and mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities.
Pimco has been a major beneficiary in the wake of the global financial crisis as skittish investors opted for safer, stable bond investments over the wildly fluctuating stock markets.
The bond market has been on quite a run, pulling more money in on a quarterly basis for nearly three years.
Gross indicated earlier this year that the bond market may have hit its peak.
Bond yields this week may hit their biggest weekly increase this year, and that momentum has curtailed bond funds in the last month.
