The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM | B-97) in June dropped two places to end the first half of 2015 as the 10th biggest ETF in the world. A nearly 4 percent drop in price, led by the ongoing Chinese selloff, plus outflows of more than $1.7 billion were to blame.
Emerging markets have been on the defensive since the U.S. economic recovery began showing staying power, which drove capital flows into the U.S. Those flows accelerated in May 2013 after the Federal Reserve first indicated it would soon begin to bring to a close its extraordinary bond buying designed to keep borrowing costs low and to encourage risk-taking in the stock market.
Throughout the post-crash years, the question of how China will reinvent itself has remained an open one. Its strong equity markets in the past year—particularly on the mainland—look by now like a bubble to some analysts. With China’s sell-off continuing, it looks likely that EEM could drop out of the top 10 when we next take of a snapshot of the ETF industry’s biggest funds. About 23 percent of EEM’s portfolio is in Chinese stocks.
The chart below plots EEM’s price and the price of the ETF market’s biggest China fund, the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (FXI | B-38). The fund focuses on large Hong Kong-listed firms, half of them financials, with nearly all of them run in some way by the Chinese government. FXI is in red and EEM is in black. The other two, in green and blue, trace positive returns last month in Brazil and India, respectively.
The 10 biggest ETFs below made up just over one-quarter of the $2.118 trillion in total U.S.-listed ETF assets at the end of the first half, according to data compiled by ETF.com. EEM ended the month of June with assets of about $29 billion compared with almost $32 billion at the end of May.
Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com
Biggest ETFs As Of July 1, 2015 ($M)
| Ticker | Fund | Issuer | June 2015 Flows |
June 2015 AUM |
June 2015 Turnover |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | SSgA | -2,157.63 | 170,512.09 | 532,248.23 |
| IVV | iShares Core S&P 500 | BlackRock | -966.55 | 67,763.66 | 15,408.52 |
| EFA | iShares MSCI EAFE | BlackRock | 2,167.95 | 60,941.33 | 27,488.83 |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market | Vanguard | 333.62 | 56,151.79 | 5,923.72 |
| VWO | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets | Vanguard | 567.38 | 47,663.93 | 10,899.13 |
| QQQ | PowerShares QQQ | Invesco PowerShares | 843.38 | 38,792.24 | 63,025.73 |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 | Vanguard | 489.84 | 32,281.71 | 6,258.19 |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | BlackRock | 2,722.45 | 29,527.21 | 84,423.50 |
| IWF | iShares Russell 1000 Growth | BlackRock | 29.72 | 29,438.65 | 2,628.51 |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | BlackRock | -1,734.12 | 29,120.14 | 41,269.90 |
Biggest ETFs As Of June 1, 2015 ($M)
| Ticker | Fund | Issuer | May 2015 Flows |
May 2015 AUM |
May 2015 Turnover |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | SSgA | 792.74 | 176,955.64 | 411,708.26 |
| IVV | iShares Core S&P 500 | BlackRock | 74.15 | 70,457.01 | 13,212.69 |
| EFA | iShares MSCI EAFE | BlackRock | 1,501.84 | 61,593.47 | 23,917.90 |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market | Vanguard | 356.94 | 57,034.52 | 4,925.62 |
| VWO | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets | Vanguard | 262.54 | 48,698.94 | 8,728.98 |
| QQQ | PowerShares QQQ | Invesco PowerShares | -1,370.73 | 39,007.95 | 57,952.22 |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 | Vanguard | 767.44 | 32,570.19 | 5,151.37 |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | BlackRock | -18.72 | 31,904.15 | 36,476.31 |
| IWF | iShares Russell 1000 Growth | BlackRock | 559.26 | 29,940.57 | 3,095.83 |
| VEA | Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets | Vanguard | 671.38 | 28,106.44 | 3,041.06 |
