In Brief

By Julie Rawe

CASH FLOWS When the market took a nosedive in March, investors who thought the sky was falling pulled a record $20.6 billion out of stock funds. This mass exodus may be a sign things are perking up--buy on bad news, remember? A look at the five biggest outflows since 1984 shows that both the Dow and the NASDAQ bounced back within the next six months.

Biggest monthly market outflows

Outflow % of Next 6 months change: (billions) assets DOW NASDAQ

Aug. '98 -$11.6 0.4% 19% 45% Oct. '87 -$7.5 3.1% 0.9% 16% Feb. '01 -$3.3 0.1% 4.8%* 0.37%* Nov. '88 -$3.2 1.6% 18% 19% Aug. '88 -$2.9 1.5% 13% 7.2%

Sources: Investment Company Institute; Bloomberg *Through 5/4/01

E-CRUITING WOES As the dot-com carnage continues, at least 55 once well-funded sites shut down in April, making it the second cruelest month. February logged 58 casualties, according to Webmergers.com Not surprisingly, many e-cruiters are also out of work. Hotjobs.com recently laid off 15% of its staff, Jobs.com filed for Chapter 11, and Refer.com closed up shop. Other sites such as CareerPath.com and CareerMosaic.com have been absorbed by rivals. But consolidation is good for job seekers, argues CareerBuilder.com because fewer players lead to a greater concentration of employers and jobs on surviving sites.

SAFE HAVEN In March skittish investors poured $13.5 billion into money-market funds, whose assets topped $2 trillion. Equally popular, says the FDIC, are banks' money-market accounts, which made up 28.6% of domestic deposits last year. But yields are falling as the Fed cuts interest rates. And small investors may start earning even less from these nearly riskless vehicles. In June, Merrill Lynch plans to lower interest rates by as much as 1% for deposit accounts with less than $100,000. Other brokerage firms may follow suit.

--By Julie Rawe