CHICAGO—How bad was 2018 for investors? They pulled a record amount of money from stock and bond funds late in 2018 and tucked it into safe havens such as CDs, money market funds, or U.S. Treasuries that mature in a year or less.
In better times, investors usually use bonds as a buffer when stocks turn nasty, but last year stock and bond funds alike were losers. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 4 percent for the year and the bond funds tracked by Lipper, on average, dropped 1.7 percent. Meanwhile, the top money market funds provided returns of more than 2.4 percent.
