Investors Are Afraid, Says BlackRock CEO
Investors don’t know what to do with their money in the face of low interest rates, Brexit and fear mixed with uncertainty surrounding the next US presidential election.
That’s according to BlackRock chief executive Laurence Fink (pictured), head of the world’s largest asset manager, which saw clients pull $2.2B out of equity products during Q2, the Wall Street Journal reports. The current low-return environment is forcing both individual and institutional investors to either save more, revise investment targets or take greater risks to meet goals.
Fink says some investors are pulling out of equities to take shelter in bonds, and Morningstar found investors in the US took more than $11B out of mutual funds in Q2. Despite investor fear, BlackRock managed to attract $1.54B in net new money during Q2, pushing the firm’s assets under management to a record $4.89 trillion. [WSJ]
