U.S. ETF assets rebound in July on strong investor inflows and solid market returns; VWO, EEM top flows tables.
U.S.-listed ETF and ETN assets under management rose from $789 billion in June to $835 billion at the end of July, as strong markets and steady inflows helped boost AUM numbers, according to new data from IndexUniverse.com.
The move ended a two-month slide for ETF assets, which had fallen from a high in April of $845 billion.
Strong investor inflows into risk-sensitive assets helped support the asset growth in July. Investors poured $9.62 billion in net new cash into exchange-traded products for the month, with two broad-based emerging markets ETFs leading the way: The Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO) gained more than $2 billion in new assets, while the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca: EEM) came in second, with $1.49 billion.
On the flip side, investors pulled money out of traditional safe-haven assets in a major way. State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) product had $1.43 billion in net outflows, second most of all products. Also losing out was the Pimco Enhanced Short Maturity Strategy Fund’s (NYSEArca: MINT) assets, an actively managed money market fund that lost more than half of its assets in June.
MINT turned heads earlier this year as the first actively managed fund to gain significant assets. It proved attractive to investors at a time when fiscal problems in Greece and elsewhere in Europe began dominating investors’ attention. But after peaking near $800 million in May, MINT assets have fallen to just $333.9 million, as investors look to redeploy money into more risk-sensitive investments.
On a company basis, iShares and Vanguard dominated the fund flows League Table in July, pulling in $6.86 billion and $2.82 billion, respectively. State Street Global Advisors saw the largest outflows, with investors pulling $488 million out of its funds.
Top Gainers: VWO Vs. EEM
We’ve talked a lot about the asset-gathering battle between the world’s two biggest emerging market funds here at IndexUniverse.com, and that’s because it’s a big story that’s not going away. It’s looking increasingly likely, as we predicted a few months ago, that VWO will surpass EEM in assets by the end of the year.
VWO was again the single-most popular ETF in the U.S. last month, adding $2.03 billion in net assets in July, bringing total assets under management to $29.11 billion. That’s a 17.7 percent increase over the prior month. By comparison, EEM gathered $1.49 billion, lifting its total to $39.00 billion, or 13.5 percent above the prior-month level.
Investors’ renewed appetite for emerging markets was also evident in IndexUniverse.com’s recent ETF Short Report, which showed a nearly 40 percent reduction in the dollars betting against emerging markets, and a near-13 percent increase in bets against developed international markets.
Another fund that benefited from the greater risk appetite in July was the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSEArca: IWM), which gathered $1.97 billion last month. Its assets now total $14.98 billion, an 18.5 percent increase over June.
Of note, three corporate bond ETFs—two junk-bond ETFs and one investment-grade bond fund—made the top 10 list for inflows, suggesting investors were willing to take on increasing risk in June in search of added returns.
| Top Gainers ($, Millions) | |||||
| Ticker | Name | Issuer | July Flows | AUM at 7/31/2010 | July Turnover |
| VWO | Vanguard Emerging Markets | Vanguard | 2,028.81 | 29,110.41 | 12,508.26 |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | BlackRock | 1,968.89 | 14,980.56 | 98,395.53 |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | BlackRock | 1,487.83 | 39,000.31 | 56,578.61 |
| JNK | SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond | SSgA | 582.80 | 5,033.24 | 2,008.09 |
| SH | ProShares Short S&P500 | ProShares | 582.59 | 2,363.18 | 6,352.77 |
| XLU | Utilities Select Sector SPDR | SSgA | 578.32 | 3,860.67 | 5,155.25 |
| LQD | iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond | BlackRock | 572.37 | 13,957.14 | 1,986.30 |
| XLE | Energy Select Sector SPDR | SSgA | 562.65 | 6,273.42 | 17,467.77 |
| XLP | Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR | SSgA | 538.40 | 3,205.61 | 4,506.95 |
| HYG | iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond | BlackRock | 467.60 | 5,887.17 | 2,028.68 |
Biggest Losers: ‘Safe-Haven’ Assets
SSgA’s SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) suffered the second-largest withdrawals for the month, as investors pulled $1.43 billion from the fund. That left assets in the popular gold bullion ETF at $48.17 billion, or 8.9 percent lower than a month ago.
The biggest outflows—$1.97 billion —were from SSgA’s SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), the biggest ETF in the world, and one whose asset base is notoriously volatile because it’s used so widely by traders and investors looking to equitize cash.
As mentioned, other “safe-haven” assets like MINT also suffered, as investor appetite for risky assets reappeared.
| Biggest Losers ($, Millions) | |||||
| Ticker | Name | Issuer | July Flows | AUM at 7/31/2010 | July Turnover |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | SSgA | -1,970.61 | 72,037.14 | 532,013.56 |
| GLD | SPDR Gold | SSgA | -1,426.26 | 48,174.50 | 33,842.38 |
| XLF | Financial Select Sector SPDR | SSgA | -392.37 | 5,902.63 | 26,715.29 |
| IWD | iShares Russell 1000 Value | BlackRock | -386.80 | 8,493.88 | 2,336.99 |
| GDX | Market Vectors Gold Miners | Van Eck | -385.44 | 6,490.05 | 8,992.65 |
| MINT | PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Strategy | Pimco | -316.73 | 333.90 | 115.41 |
| FAS | Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3x | Direxion | -281.60 | 1,649.59 | 24,453.78 |
| XRT | SPDR S&P Retail | SSgA | -275.45 | 453.70 | 10,794.53 |
| UUP | PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish | Invesco PowerShares | -242.66 | 881.89 | 1,569.76 |
| EWJ | iShares MSCI Japan | BlackRock | -216.74 | 4,531.44 | 3,981.57 |
The list of the five-biggest ETFs in the world was unchanged in July, with the largest, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), still comfortably at the top of the list. It ended July with $72.04 billion, above the $69.54 billion at the end of June, even though it suffered outflows of $1.97 billion last month.
The iShares emerging markets fund EEM remained the third-biggest U.S. ETF, and Vanguard’s VWO remained No. 5, though, as noted above, VWO is bridging the gap.
The iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (NYSEArca: EFA) remained in the No. 4 slot, with $33.39 billion.
| ETF Giants ($, Millions) | |||||
| Ticker | Name | Issuer | July Flows | AUM at 7/31/2010 | July Turnover |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | SSgA | -1,970.61 | 72,037.14 | 532,013.56 |
| GLD | SPDR Gold | SSgA | -1,426.26 | 48,174.50 | 33,842.38 |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | BlackRock | 1,487.83 | 39,000.31 | 56,578.61 |
| EFA | iShares MSCI EAFE | BlackRock | - | 33,385.97 | 26,788.20 |
| VWO | Vanguard Emerging Markets | Vanguard | 2,028.81 | 29,110.41 | 12,508.26 |
| IVV | iShares S&P 500 | BlackRock | -87.00 | 21,875.76 | 8,814.85 |
| TIP | iShares Barclays TIPS Bond | BlackRock | 180.21 | 20,609.55 | 1,282.33 |
| QQQQ | PowerShares QQQ | Invesco PowerShares | 224.96 | 18,836.56 | 81,490.37 |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | BlackRock | 1,968.89 | 14,980.56 | 98,395.53 |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market | Vanguard | -109.36 | 14,212.01 | 2,360.90 |
The list of the most liquid and tradable ETFs was also stable in July, with SPY still comfortably at the top. Its turnover of more than $532 billion was over five times as much as IWM, the No. 2 fund on the list, which had $98.40 billion in turnover last month.
Rounding out the top-three liquidity mavens list was the PowerShares QQQ (NYSEArca: QQQQ) of Nasdaq’s 100-biggest companies. Its turnover was $81.49 billion.
| Liquidity Mavens | |||||
| Ticker | Name | Issuer | July Flows | AUM at 7/31/2010 | July Turnover |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | SSgA | -1,970.61 | 72,037.14 | 532,013.56 |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | BlackRock | 1,968.89 | 14,980.56 | 98,395.53 |
| QQQQ | PowerShares QQQ | Invesco PowerShares | 224.96 | 18,836.56 | 81,490.37 |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | BlackRock | 1,487.83 | 39,000.31 | 56,578.61 |
| GLD | SPDR Gold | SSgA | -1,426.26 | 48,174.50 | 33,842.38 |
| SDS | ProShares UltraShort S&P500 | ProShares | 345.25 | 3,519.20 | 32,628.74 |
| EFA | iShares MSCI EAFE | BlackRock | - | 33,385.97 | 26,788.20 |
| XLF | Financial Select Sector SPDR | SSgA | -392.37 | 5,902.63 | 26,715.29 |
| FAS | Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3x | Direxion | -281.60 | 1,649.59 | 24,453.78 |
| EWZ | iShares MSCI Brazil | BlackRock | -41.06 | 9,581.52 | 23,602.01 |
ETF League Table
BlackRock continues to lead all ETF providers on the ETF League table, closing the month with $389 billion in assets. It also led all issuers for inflows, with $6.9 billion.
State Street, Vanguard, PowerShares and ProShares round out the top five providers; of those, Vanguard had the most impressive month on a flows basis.
Looking down the league tables, two ETF providers making significant gains in July were AdvisorShares and Global X. Global X pulled down nearly $100 million in net new assets, its best month ever, as a recent string of product launches found traction with investors.
| Issuer | July Flows | AUM at 7/31/2010 |
| BlackRock | 6,864 | 389,295 |
| SSgA | (488) | 199,243 |
| Vanguard | 2,820 | 112,925 |
| Invesco PowerShares | 43 | 45,001 |
| ProShares | 479 | 25,071 |
| Van Eck | (344) | 14,355 |
| WisdomTree | 134 | 6,750 |
| Barclays Capital | 257 | 6,726 |
| Direxion | 65 | 6,171 |
| Rydex | (334) | 5,668 |
| US Commodities Funds | (260) | 5,109 |
| Merrill Lynch | 184 | 4,648 |
| Claymore | 23 | 2,842 |
| First Trust | (13) | 2,608 |
| JPMorgan Chase | 243 | 1,576 |
| ETF Securities | (1) | 1,568 |
| Charles Schwab | 112 | 1,421 |
| Pimco | (278) | 1,202 |
| Elements | (65) | 888 |
| RevenueShares | (6) | 455 |
| Global X | 99 | 360 |
| GreenHaven | 11 | 269 |
| UBS | 13 | 246 |
| IndexIQ | 5 | 184 |
| Xshares | - | 148 |
| Fidelity | - | 142 |
| Emerging Global Shares | 5 | 114 |
| Old Mutual | - | 79 |
| Jefferies | - | 76 |
| ALPS | 6 | 69 |
| Advisorshares | 43 | 65 |
| Goldman Sachs | - | 59 |
| iShares | 6 | 59 |
| Credit Suisse | (4) | 54 |
| Grail Advisors | - | 23 |
| GlobalShares | - | 15 |
| Geary Advisors | 3 | 14 |
| ALPS | - | 11 |
| FaithShares | 1 | 10 |
| U.S. One Trust | 1 | 5 |
| Pax World | (0) | 2 |
| Javelin | - | 2 |
| 9,623 | 835,529 |
