US mutual fund managers have fallen victim to the dash to cash that caused Janus Capital, 1999's star performer, to lose more than $50bn (€53bn) of its assets under management in the final quarter of 2000.

According to AMG, the US performance measurement group, in the final full trading week of 2000 US retail investors moved $19.2bn out of mutual funds into gold and defensive equities such as natural resources and real estate. This was a reversal of the previous weeks, when investment in mutual funds was robust. One analyst said the loss of confidence that had hit Janus in the last quarter of 2000 had spread to rival managers.