An up-and-down month on Wall Street saw 401(k) investors mostly stay the course in January, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) IndexTM. The only day of above-normal activity1 was on January 6, when investors rushed out of large U.S. equity funds amid events at the U.S. Capitol. One-out-of-every-six net trading outflows for the month from large U.S. equity funds occurred on January 6.
January observations:
- Average net trading activity was 0.024% of 401(k) balances, up from 0.015% in December
- Nine days favored equity funds and 10 days favored fixed income funds
Alight Solutions 401(k) Index statistics for January 2021:
Index statistics |
January |
2021 YTD |
Total transfers as percentage of starting balance |
0.21% |
0.21% |
# Fixed days |
10 (53%) |
10 (53%) |
# Equity days |
9 (47%) |
9 (47%) |
# Above-normal days |
1 |
1 |
Inflows and outflows during the month of January:
- Trading inflows mainly went to stable value, target date2 and emerging markets funds
- Outflows were primarily from large U.S. equity funds and company stock
Asset classes with most trading inflows in January
|
Percentage of inflows |
Index dollar value ($ mil) |
Stable value |
37% |
$184 |
Target date funds |
15% |
$72 |
Emerging markets |
14% |
$69 |
Asset classes with most trading outflows in January
|
Percentage of outflows |
Index dollar value ($ mil) |
Large U.S. equities |
71% |
$354 |
Company stock |
27% |
$132 |
January investment portfolios:
- After reflecting market movements and trading activity, average asset allocation in equities decreased slightly from 67.7% in December to 67.6% in January
- New contributions to equities increased from 67.3% in December to 68.3% in January
Asset classes with largest percentage of total balance at end of January
|
Percentage of balance |
Index dollar value ($ mil) |
Target date funds |
30% |
$72,490 |
Large U.S. equity funds |
25% |
$60,216 |
Stable value funds |
9% |
$21,685 |
Asset classes with most contributions in January
|
Percentage of contributions |
Index dollar value ($ mil) |
Target date funds |
47% |
$715 |
Large U.S. equity funds |
21% |
$315 |
International equity funds |
7% |
$112 |
Returns for common indices
|
January |
2021 YTD |
Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index |
-0.7% |
-0.7% |
S&P 500 Index |
-1.0% |
-1.0% |
Russell 2000 Index |
5.0% |
5.0% |
MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index (net) |
0.2% |
0.2% |
Members of the media: please contact Landis Cullen for questions about the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™.