Industry inflows slipped a bit last week, thanks largely to worsening net flows for commodity and U.S. stock funds, according to the latest data from the folks at a mutual fund industry trade group. That's despite improving flows for municipal bond and international stock funds.

Yesterday, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) team reported that an estimated $14.298 billion net flowed into ETFs and long-term, open-end mutual funds in the week ended March 18, 2026*. That's down by $2.687 billion week-over-week from the week ended on March 11** but still extends the industry's inflows streak to ten weeks in a row.

Traditional, long-term, open-end mutual funds suffered an estimated $10.759 billion in net outflows in the week ended March 18, up by $4.947 billion W/W. Meanwhile, ETFs brought in an estimated $25.057 billion in net inflows last week, up by $2.26 billion W/W.

Bonds funds led the way for a ninth consecutive week. Per ICI's data, fixed income funds and ETFs brought in an estimated $16.636 billion in net inflows for the week ended March 18 (up by $987 million W/W). $13.573 billion of that (down by $373 million W/W) flowed into taxable bond funds and ETFs, while $3.063 billion (up by $1.378 billion W/W) flowed into muni bond funds and ETFs.

Flows into equity funds and ETFs slipped but remained positive for a second week in a row, as $2.938 billion net flowed in for the week ended March 18 (down by $2.513 billion W/W). Domestic equity funds and ETFs suffered an estimated $6.501 billion in net outflows last week (up by $5.167 billion W/W), while world equity ETFs and funds brought in $9.439 billion in net inflows (up by $2.653 billion W/W).

On the flip side, the ICI team reports that hybrid funds and ETFs suffered an estimated $1.657 billion in net outflows for the week ended March. That's down by $830 million W/W.

Commodity funds (well, ETFs) suffered an estimated $3.619 billion in net outflows for the week ended March 18. That's up by $1.991 billion W/W.

*Money-market funds and funds of funds, as well as non-'40 Act asset management products like collective trusts and separate accounts, are not included.

**Editor's Note: The ICI folks note that they also regularly revise the past weeks' flows data, "because of adjustments, reclassifications, and changes in the number of funds reporting." Thus, the week-to-week flows changes may not quite line up perfectly with the numbers in MFWire's coverage of prior weeks' flows. 

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