Investors yank another $1.84 billion from ETFs on Friday, Aug. 5, the day that ended with an S&P downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt..
Investors pulled another $984 million from the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) and $572.4 million from the Energy Select SPDR (NYSEArca: XLE) on Friday, as stocks gyrated with huge volatility in a session marked by rumors of a downgrade of U.S. debt that turned out to be true.
Overall, net outflows from ETFs were almost $1.84 billion, as total assets in U.S.-listed funds fell almost 1.5 percent to almost $1.031 trillion from $1.046 trillion on Thursday, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.
Much of the decline in ETF assets was due to plummeting markets. The Dow Jones ended the week 5.8 percent lower, including a 512-point drop on Thursday that made possible the index’s biggest weekly drop since October 2008. ETF assets started the week at nearly $1.1 trillion, meaning that between outflows and market losses they ended about 6.2 percent lower on the week.
While the Dow finished almost 61 points higher on Friday, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both declined. The S&P eased 0.06 percent to 1,199.38, while the Nasdaq lost almost 1 percent to end the session at 2,532.41.
The Dow was down sharply at midday as rumors swirled about an impending downgrade from Standard and Poor’s. After the market closed, S&P announced that it had indeed downgraded the long-term U.S. debt from a risk-free rating of “AAA” to a notch lower at “AA+.” The move reflected concern about U.S. indebtedness and an unpredictable political environment. It said its outlook on the U.S. was “negative.”
In the aftermath of Thursday’s sharp selloff, a broad range of equity ETFs suffered redemptions.
The iShares MSCI Hong Kong Index Fund (NYSEArca: EWH) followed SPY and XLE on IndexUniverse’s “Top 10 Redemptions” list, with outflows of $337.7 million.
The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca: EEM) meanwhile lost $154.5 million to redemptions, and the iShares S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index Fund (NYSEArca: PFF) recorded outflows of almost $154 million.
Creations
While the iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (NYSEArca: IWM) was the most popular ETF on Friday, investors also looked to safer pockets of the market, even before the downgrade became a reality. IWM gathered more than $628 million in new assets.
For example, the iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Fund (NYSEArca: SHY) gathered another $160.6 million, or 2 percent of its assets.
Investors also added $151 million to the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca: SLV).
A bit harder to fathom were inflows of almost $72 million into the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (NYSEArca: TLT) The ETF has precisely the kind of long-term debt that the S&P downgrade was focused on. Still, as Barclays said in a research note issued after the downgrade, Treasurys still loomed largedly as a flight-to-quality play, suggesting that for now, little had changed in the U.S. government debt market.
On a percentage basis, creations for a number of ETF stuck out. The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Explorataion & Production ETF (NYSEArca: XOP), for example, gathered almost $154 million in new money, which amounted to about 20 percent of its assets.
Also, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEArca: XRT) hauled in $90 million on Friday, or 17 percent of its assets.
Two leveraged funds also had big creations. The double-exposure ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Crude Oil ETF (NYSEArca: UCO) had inflows of $86.5 million, or 30 percent of its assets. The triple-exposure Direxion Daily Energy Bull 3x ETF (NYSEArca: ERX) meanwhile had creations of almost $77 million, which amounted to 28 percent of its assets.
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | 628.39 | 14,306.53 | 5% |
| SHY | iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Treasury Bond | 160.56 | 8,653.26 | 2% |
| XOP | SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production | 153.89 | 941.91 | 20% |
| SLV | iShares Silver | 151.01 | 12,778.38 | 1% |
| SSO | ProShares Ultra S&P 500 | 91.37 | 1,647.94 | 6% |
| XRT | SPDR S&P Retail | 90.00 | 627.57 | 17% |
| UCO | ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Crude Oil | 86.47 | 371.79 | 30% |
| MDY | SPDR S&P MidCap 400 | 84.41 | 9,227.71 | 1% |
| ERX | Direxion Daily Energy Bull 3x | 76.94 | 355.52 | 28% |
| TLT | iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond | 71.98 | 2,817.54 | 3% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | -984.86 | 80,570.22 | -1% |
| XLE | Energy Select SPDR | -572.42 | 7,146.72 | -7% |
| EWH | iShares MSCI Hong Kong | -337.66 | 1,698.80 | -17% |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | -154.52 | 34,766.74 | 0% |
| PFF | iShares S&P U.S. Preferred Stock | -153.90 | 7,609.66 | -2% |
| XLY | Consumer Discretionary Select SPDR | -134.83 | 2,004.27 | -6% |
| QQQ | PowerShares QQQ | -129.28 | 22,330.03 | -1% |
| IJR | iShares S&P SmallCap 600 | -93.26 | 6,177.42 | -1% |
| XLF | Financial Select SPDR | -80.65 | 5,965.01 | -1% |
| IJH | iShares S&P 400 MidCap | -80.21 | 9,156.42 | -1% |
ETF Daily Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | -2,092.53 | 438,456.44 | -0.48% |
| International Equity | -738.97 | 267,522.13 | -0.28% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 133.65 | 151,500.16 | 0.09% |
| International Fixed Income | 19.14 | 12,017.52 | 0.16% |
| Commodities | 183.69 | 118,826.64 | 0.15% |
| Currency | 5.00 | 6,079.74 | 0.08% |
| Leveraged | 594.38 | 13,107.63 | 4.53% |
| Inverse | 90.90 | 19,100.04 | 0.48% |
| Asset Allocation | -2.07 | 862.19 | -0.24% |
| Alternatives | -29.49 | 3,383.52 | -0.87% |
| Total: | -1,836.32 | 1,030,856.00 | -0.18% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) |
1-Day Volume | % of Average |
| RTR | RevenueShares ADR | 16,801 | 268,334 | 1597% |
| PLW | PowerShares 1-30 Laddered Treasury Portfolio | 35,801 | 458,929 | 1282% |
| SPYG | SPDR 500 Growth | 24,402 | 254,144 | 1042% |
| EXI | iShares S&P Global Industrials | 51,685 | 530,239 | 1026% |
| PYZ | PowerShares Dynamic Basic Materials Portfolio | 30,569 | 291,042 | 952% |
| DBV | PowerShares DB G10 Currency Harvest | 319,690 | 2,964,489 | 927% |
| EWH | iShares MSCI Hong Kong | 5,525,179 | 49,075,583 | 888% |
| JKH | iShares Morningstar Mid Growth | 22,272 | 185,756 | 834% |
| SCHO | Schwab Short-Term U. S. Treasury | 100,777 | 836,142 | 830% |
| PXE | PowerShares Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Portfolio | 46,116 | 378,308 | 820% |
Top 10 1-Day Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | 1-Day Performance | 1-Day Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| EWP | iShares MSCI Spain | 6.52% | 2,030,330 | 180.67 |
| EWI | iShares MSCI Italy | 5.54% | 1,908,957 | 111.27 |
| VIXY | ProShares VIX Short-Term | 5.10% | 2,202,175 | 34.58 |
| VIIX | VelocityShares VIX Short Term ETN | 5.07% | 476,789 | 16.51 |
| EWAC | Rydex MSCI All Country Equal Weight | 4.99% | 1,496 | 5.55 |
| VXX | iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN | 4.91% | 119,918,317 | 1,262.67 |
| EWD | iShares MSCI Sweden | 4.88% | 1,470,293 | 437.34 |
| JYF | WisdomTree Dreyfus Japanese Yen | 4.30% | 113,283 | 6.64 |
| FEZ | SPDR Euro STOXX 50 | 4.13% | 118,344 | 139.32 |
| FPA | First Trust Asia Pacific Ex-Japan AlphaDex | 4.07% | 5,546 | 2.76 |
Bottom 10 1-Day Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | 1-Day Performance | 1-Day Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| AXID | iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Industrials | -9.23% | 1,800 | 5.42 |
| GWO | ELEMENTS Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN | -7.89% | 5,603 | 0.00 |
| GAF | SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa | -6.94% | 16,679 | 124.73 |
| AXMT | iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Materials | -6.64% | 5,114 | 5.95 |
| SHMO | Russell 2000 High Momentum | -6.25% | 1,100 | 8.93 |
| RWG | Columbia Large-Cap Growth Strategy | -6.09% | 2,150 | 9.09 |
| JPP | SPDR Russell/Nomura PRIME Japan | -5.91% | 1,222 | 15.23 |
| VTWV | Vanguard Russell 2000 Value | -5.86% | 9,176 | 5.46 |
| URA | Global X Uranium | -5.61% | 797,259 | 211.04 |
| MLPW | UBS E-TRACS Wells Fargo MLP ETN | -5.43% | 3,100 | 17.23 |
Disclaimer: All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern time the date the article is published. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.
