Mutual Fund Report

(Wil Ramirez / Los Angeles Times)
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For stock mutual fund investors, the first quarter of this year had been looking a lot like the fourth quarter of last year: an Acapulco cliff dive. ¶ But this time around, the equity market landed on a trampoline. Since blue-chip indexes including the Dow Jones industrials sank to 12-year lows March 9, the market has rebounded for five straight weeks. ¶ The comeback dramatically pared stock fund investors’ first-quarter losses, turning another catastrophe into a mere extremely painful pummeling. The average domestic stock fund lost 8.2% in the quarter ended March 31, according to investment research firm Morningstar Inc. ¶ By contrast, at the market’s lows last month the loss for the new year had been about on par with the fourth quarter’s devastating collapse of about 22%.