By TIM PARADIS
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK – Investors are betting that small-caps will be the stock market’s standouts as the economy improves.
Some of the strongest mutual fund returns in the January-March quarter have come from funds that focus on smaller companies.
Small-capitalization value funds returned an average 9.3 percent and small-cap growth funds returned 7.2 percent during the quarter. The numbers topped the 3.7 percent return for large-cap growth funds and the 5.3 percent return for large-cap value funds. The figures reflect trading through Thursday so they don’t include the final four trading days of the quarter.