The industry returned to net inflows shortly before Christmas, thanks to plunging open-end fund outflows and despite a drop in ETF inflows, according to the latest data from the folks at a mutual fund industry trade group.

Today, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) team reports that an estimated $20.596 billion net flowed into ETFs and long-term, open-end mutual funds in the 6 days ended December 23, 2025. (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.) That's up by $29.403 billion week-over-week from the week ended on December 17*.

Traditional, long-term, open-end mutual funds suffered an estimated $27.191 billion in net outflows for the 6 days ended December 23, according to the ICI folks, down by $39.309 billion W/W. Meanwhile, ETFs brought in an estimated $47.76 billion in net inflows, down by $3.906 billion W/W.

Fixed income led industry inflows yet again last week. Per ICI's data, an estimated $15.109 billion net flowed into bond funds and ETFs in the 6 days ended December 23 (up by $8.162 billion W/W). $13.221 billion of that (up by $7.628 billion W/W) flowed into taxable bond funds and ETFs, while $1.889 billion (up by $536 million W/W) flowed into municipal bond funds and muni ETFs.

Commodity funds (well, ETFs) brought in an estimated $3.32 billion in net inflows for the 6 days ended December 23. That's up by $468 million W/W.

Equity funds and ETFs brought in an estimated $3.203 billion in net inflows for the 6 days ended December 23 (up by $17.713 billion W/W). Domestic equity funds and ETFs suffered $1.966 billion in net outflows (down by $12.134 billion W/W), while world equity funds and ETFs brought in an estimated $5.169 billion in net inflows (up by $5.579 billion W/W).

On the flip side, hybrid funds and ETFs suffered an estimated $1.064 billion in net outflows in the 6 days ending December 23. That's down by $3.059 billion W/W.

*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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