Equities falter as high yield and EMD demand swells

March was a month of consolidation as investors found little to drive a renewed round of bullishness. Equity markets lost momentum as they waited to see what the first quarter earnings season would deliver. Bond markets – particularly government bond markets – continued to be out of favour as investors fretted about valuations. This meant lower investment flows: from a global point of view, data from EPFR shows commitments to bond funds were the smallest since the first week of the year and flows into equity funds were just $645m in the third week of March. It seems the post-LTR...