The money kept pouring in to ETFs in June, but skittish markets ruined the party.
Investors plowed forward in June, adding more than $8 billion in new money to equities, fixed-income and other ETFs, even as Greece-related turmoil roiled financial markets and pulled total assets in U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds down 1.4 percent to $1.099 trillion.
To be sure, ETFs were hit by outflows in June from commodities and fixed-income funds, notably high-yield debt. But ETF flows remained strong, and totaled almost $30 billion in the second quarter and more than $58 billion in the entire first half of 2011, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), the world’s-biggest exchange-traded fund, hauled in $4.74 billion, reversing the nearly $5 billion it bled in May, when U.S.-listed ETFs had net outflows for the first time since last August. Some industry sources have speculated that the SPY creations reflected attempts by authorized participants to meet growing demand to short the highly liquid ETF as markets swooned.
Short of shorting, a number of prominent fixed-income funds benefited from the flight-to-safety impulse coursing through markets amid signs that Greece might be on course to default on its debt obligations.
For example, the iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond Fund (NYSEArca: AGG) gathered $590 million in new assets and the iShares Barclays TIPS Fund (NYSEArca: TIP) added almost $475 million. Also, the iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Fund (NYSEArca: SHY) added $447 million in new assets last month.
Also, some commodities funds bucked the overall trend, raking in assets instead of bleeding them. The Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (NYSEArca: MOO), for instance, gathered more than $474 million, a month after it was the single most popular U.S. ETF.
June Top Gainers ($, Millions) 6/30/2011 | |||||
Ticker | Name | Issuer | June 2011 Flows | June 2011 AUM ($, M) | June 2011 Turnover |
SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | SSgA | 4,741.63 | 92,092.58 | 607,948.00 |
VWO | Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets | Vanguard | 1,998.53 | 49,990.72 | 18,322.42 |
IWR | iShares Russell Midcap | BlackRock | 633.48 | 7,069.79 | 860.48 |
AGG | iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond | BlackRock | 590.08 | 11,850.28 | 2,782.06 |
TIP | iShares Barclays TIPS Bond | BlackRock | 474.77 | 20,940.52 | 2,029.99 |
MOO | Market Vectors Agribusiness | Van Eck | 474.39 | 5,538.75 | 2,410.85 |
XLV | Health Care Select SPDR | SSgA | 453.58 | 4,235.54 | 8,155.47 |
SHY | iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Treasury Bond | BlackRock | 447.24 | 8,380.38 | 2,862.14 |
VEA | Vanguard MSCI EAFE | Vanguard | 411.73 | 7,196.07 | 1,835.52 |
XLU | Utilities Select SPDR | SSgA | 376.76 | 4,699.35 | 4,701.23 |
Flows By Asset Class | |||
Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
U.S. Equity | 1,433.45 | 492,761.37 | 0.29% |
International Equity | 2,259.39 | 294,812.21 | 0.77% |
U.S. Fixed Income | 2,587.18 | 147,906.12 | 1.75% |
International Fixed Income | 867.13 | 10,955.06 | 7.92% |
Commodities | -759.11 | 105,582.65 | -0.72% |
Currency | 442.77 | 5,826.92 | 7.60% |
Leveraged | 482.57 | 13,771.17 | 3.50% |
Inverse | 1,078.77 | 23,188.35 | 4.65% |
Asset Allocation | 60.99 | 918.01 | 6.64% |
Alternatives | -297.88 | 3,376.08 | -8.82% |
Total: | 8,155.27 | 1,099,097.95 | 0.74% |
Outflows
The junk bond ETFs that got caught in the cross hairs of last month’s selling were the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Bond Fund (NYSEArca: HYG) and the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF (NYSEArca: JNK). HYG was hit with net redemptions of $548 million, while JNK suffered outflows of $403 million.
Among the other funds that bled assets was the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca: SLV), which suffered redemptions of almost $463 in all of last month.
The Energy Select SPDR ETF (NYSEArca: XLE) had outflows of more than $500 million, partly a reflection of a crude oil market that cooled from a month earlier.
Also of note, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca: EEM) bled more than $680 million last month, while its rival, the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO) was last month’s second-most-popular fund, gathering more than $1.99 billion in new assets.
That divergence was also in evidence in the year-to-date data compiled by IndexUniverse, with VWO the single most popular ETF and EEM the least popular. In the first six months of the year, VWO added $5.82 billion in new assets, while EEM has suffered redemptions of about $8.42 billion. VWO became the biggest emerging markets fund in January.
The presence of so many Vanguard funds on the June “Biggest Losers” table is likely connected to rebalancing of its funds.
The company has told IndexUniverse in the past that sizable creation and redemption activity at the end of one month and the beginning of another—such as the more than $1 billion that exited the Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (NYSEArca: VB)—is related to monthly fund rebalancing.
June Biggest Losers ($, Millions) | |||||
Ticker | Name | Issuer | June 2011 Flows | June 2011 AUM ($, M) | June 2011 Turnover |
VB | Vanguard Small-Cap | Vanguard | -1,018.74 | 4,631.07 | 776.61 |
VO | Vanguard Mid-Cap | Vanguard | -938.60 | 3,955.75 | 393.73 |
QQQ | PowerShares QQQ | Invesco PowerShares | -928.81 | 22,838.71 | 64,152.89 |
VBK | Vanguard Small-Cap Growth | Vanguard | -820.72 | 2,333.40 | 469.76 |
EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | BlackRock | -680.74 | 38,428.61 | 52,687.06 |
VBR | Vanguard Small-Cap Value | Vanguard | -575.97 | 2,059.41 | 213.23 |
HYG | iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond | BlackRock | -548.22 | 8,331.84 | 4,132.34 |
XLE | Energy Select SPDR | SSgA | -504.55 | 9,011.39 | 37,886.86 |
SLV | iShares Silver | BlackRock | -462.93 | 10,733.62 | 24,970.15 |
JNK | SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond | SSgA | -403.50 | 6,860.31 | 3,842.72 |
Q2 Biggest Losers ($, Millions) | |||||
Ticker | Name | Issuer | Q2 2011 Flows | Q2 2011 AUM ($, M) | Q2 2011 Turnover |
SLV | iShares Silver | BlackRock | -2,068.91 | 10,733.62 | 182,368.75 |
XLE | Energy Select SPDR | SSgA | -1,411.05 | 9,011.39 | 109,464.36 |
QQQ | PowerShares QQQ | Invesco PowerShares | -1,357.71 | 22,838.71 | 189,520.48 |
IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | BlackRock | -656.31 | 16,629.60 | 321,050.25 |
DBA | PowerShares DB Agriculture | Invesco PowerShares | -637.98 | 3,072.24 | 5,283.45 |
FXI | iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 | BlackRock | -564.48 | 7,079.23 | 42,763.80 |
USO | United States Oil | US Commodity Funds | -537.69 | 1,463.58 | 37,421.34 |
RSX | Market Vectors Russia | Van Eck | -512.73 | 3,098.13 | 10,769.54 |
XOP | SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production | SSgA | -491.93 | 907.98 | 22,509.60 |
XRT | SPDR S&P Retail | SSgA | -461.56 | 569.56 | 35,268.77 |
Fund Sponsors
Overall, the top three fund companies—BlackRock’s San Francisco-based unit, iShares; Boston-based State Street Global Advisors; and Valley Forge, Pa.-based Vanguard all had net inflows last month.
But, as was the case with overall assets, both iShares and Vanguard ended June with fewer assets under management than in May. Only SSgA bucked that trend, largely by dint of SPY’s sizable creations.
But in the second quarter, as in the whole year so far, Vanguard’s asset gathering continued to outpace that of its rivals.
In the second quarter, Vanguard gathered more than $10 billion, compared with $7.48 billion for iShares and almost $5 billion for SSgA. In all of 2011 so far, Vanguard has added almost $21 billion, compared with $12.5 billion for iShares, and just $5.82 billion for SSgA, which saw $2.34 billion exit SPY and $3.11 billion leave its SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEArca: GLD).
Q2 2011 League Tables | ||||
Issuer | Net Flows | AUM ($M) | % of AUM | Turnover |
BlackRock | 7,482.40 | 474,704.15 | 1.58% | 1,252,894.31 |
SSgA | 4,496.17 | 259,331.01 | 1.73% | 2,170,888.46 |
Vanguard | 10,429.28 | 174,750.20 | 5.97% | 115,016.38 |
Invesco PowerShares | -1,363.75 | 58,409.92 | -2.33% | 229,566.48 |
ProShares | 2,165.49 | 27,140.29 | 7.98% | 302,525.33 |
Van Eck | 2,561.10 | 23,062.69 | 11.10% | 71,373.46 |
WisdomTree | 1,712.52 | 12,934.00 | 13.24% | 12,138.54 |
Rydex | 1,141.36 | 9,213.36 | 12.39% | 26,583.98 |
Barclays Capital | -306.62 | 8,389.90 | -3.65% | 51,336.68 |
First Trust | 582.11 | 7,716.40 | 7.54% | 6,714.70 |
Direxion | 40.25 | 6,665.83 | 0.60% | 187,053.65 |
Merrill Lynch | -535.96 | 6,587.46 | -8.14% | 84,779.60 |
Charles Schwab | 651.58 | 4,448.28 | 14.65% | 3,223.62 |
US Commodity Funds | -894.14 | 4,255.40 | -21.01% | 49,843.11 |
ETF Securities | -41.53 | 3,843.55 | -1.08% | 7,228.39 |
Guggenheim | -16.94 | 3,700.39 | -0.46% | 2,655.54 |
PIMCO | 183.26 | 3,162.21 | 5.80% | 2,308.17 |
JPMorgan Chase | 195.85 | 2,714.84 | 7.21% | 2,249.69 |
Global X | 120.87 | 1,617.65 | 7.47% | 2,881.15 |
ALPS | 284.28 | 1,312.47 | 21.66% | 891.99 |
UBS | 8.53 | 755.81 | 1.13% | 431.72 |
GreenHaven | -46.68 | 733.87 | -6.36% | 463.33 |
RevenueShares | -20.82 | 570.65 | -3.65% | 263.82 |
Emerging Global Shares | 29.48 | 554.92 | 5.31% | 291.57 |
IndexIQ | 2.82 | 451.96 | 0.62% | 410.55 |
VelocityShares | 286.84 | 424.72 | 67.54% | 5,448.77 |
Credit Suisse | 93.64 | 328.23 | 28.53% | 189.01 |
AdvisorShares | 67.08 | 318.42 | 21.07% | 263.22 |
Jefferies | -12.82 | 175.91 | -7.29% | 164.01 |
Russell | 151.97 | 165.27 | 91.95% | 107.94 |
DBX Strategic Advisors | - | 137.02 | 0.00% | 17.47 |
Teucrium | 58.75 | 134.01 | 43.84% | 585.24 |
Goldman Sachs | - | 78.32 | 0.00% | 43.54 |
FocusShares | 0.00 | 76.60 | 0.00% | 72.92 |
RBS Securities | 47.29 | 75.74 | 62.43% | 64.28 |
Deutsche Bank | 27.23 | 52.45 | 51.91% | 26.21 |
Columbia | 3.45 | 26.77 | 12.87% | 25.29 |
Morgan Stanley | - | 20.19 | 0.00% | 47.63 |
FactorShares | -4.58 | 19.68 | -23.26% | 109.92 |
Javelin | - | 15.02 | 0.00% | 7.12 |
FaithShares | - | 10.79 | 0.00% | 15.67 |
CitiGroup | - | 9.59 | 0.00% | 12.35 |
Pax World | 1.40 | 6.79 | 20.70% | 7.09 |
Fidelity | - | - | - | 66.94 |
June 2011 League Tables | ||||
Issuer | Net Flows | AUM ($M) | % of AUM | Turnover |
BlackRock | 517.72 | 474,704.15 | 0.11% | 405,745.45 |
SSgA | 5,189.34 | 259,331.01 | 2.00% | 859,134.52 |
Vanguard | 572.96 | 174,750.20 | 0.33% | 39,167.27 |
Invesco PowerShares | -1,406.23 | 58,409.92 | -2.41% | 76,601.65 |
ProShares | 1,009.34 | 27,140.29 | 3.72% | 103,663.50 |
Van Eck | 823.30 | 23,062.69 | 3.57% | 22,074.27 |
WisdomTree | 843.22 | 12,934.00 | 6.52% | 3,959.71 |
Rydex | 270.84 | 9,213.36 | 2.94% | 10,442.92 |
Barclays Capital | -673.27 | 8,389.90 | -8.02% | 19,603.81 |
First Trust | -267.83 | 7,716.40 | -3.47% | 2,594.29 |
Direxion | 369.07 | 6,665.83 | 5.54% | 76,201.43 |
Merrill Lynch | 64.14 | 6,582.70 | 0.97% | 26,288.02 |
Charles Schwab | 176.72 | 4,448.28 | 3.97% | 1,136.80 |
US Commodity Funds | -36.26 | 4,255.40 | -0.85% | 14,421.28 |
ETF Securities | 27.46 | 3,843.55 | 0.71% | 1,312.59 |
Guggenheim | -15.82 | 3,700.39 | -0.43% | 767.45 |
PIMCO | 265.55 | 3,162.21 | 8.40% | 869.30 |
JPMorgan Chase | - | 2,714.84 | 0.00% | 705.16 |
Global X | 39.82 | 1,617.65 | 2.46% | 688.60 |
ALPS | 75.24 | 1,312.47 | 5.73% | 307.88 |
UBS | 1.10 | 755.81 | 0.15% | 145.96 |
GreenHaven | -5.43 | 733.87 | -0.74% | 106.11 |
RevenueShares | -40.14 | 570.65 | -7.03% | 103.27 |
Emerging Global Shares | 22.13 | 554.92 | 3.99% | 96.20 |
IndexIQ | -18.19 | 451.96 | -4.02% | 117.08 |
VelocityShares | 215.72 | 424.72 | 50.79% | 2,658.69 |
Credit Suisse | 50.39 | 328.23 | 15.35% | 87.29 |
AdvisorShares | 30.34 | 318.42 | 9.53% | 95.99 |
Jefferies | -18.95 | 175.91 | -10.77% | 33.37 |
Russell | 43.05 | 165.27 | 26.05% | 41.94 |
DBX Strategic Advisors | - | 137.02 | 0.00% | 5.07 |
Teucrium | 4.23 | 134.01 | 3.16% | 208.30 |
Goldman Sachs | - | 78.32 | 0.00% | 8.97 |
FocusShares | - | 76.60 | 0.00% | 23.28 |
RBS Securities | - | 75.74 | 0.00% | 18.13 |
Deutsche Bank | 26.25 | 52.45 | 50.05% | 18.26 |
Columbia | - | 26.77 | 0.00% | 3.25 |
Morgan Stanley | - | 20.19 | 0.00% | 5.39 |
FactorShares | -1.96 | 19.68 | -9.95% | 18.95 |
Javelin | - | 15.02 | 0.00% | 2.19 |
FaithShares | - | 10.79 | 0.00% | 3.34 |
CitiGroup | - | 9.59 | 0.00% | 3.61 |
Pax World | 1.40 | 6.79 | 20.70% | 2.18 |
Fidelity | - | - | - | 26.54 |
The 10 biggest ETFs all retained their positions in the month of June, with SPY remaining the biggest fund and the iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (NYSEArca: IWM) still in the 10th spot.
June ETF Giants ($, Millions) | |||||
Ticker | Name | Issuer | June 2011 Flows | June 2011 AUM ($, M) | June 2011 Turnover |
SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | SSgA | 4,741.63 | 92,092.58 | 607,948.00 |
GLD | SPDR Gold | SSgA | -101.03 | 58,460.23 | 43,402.90 |
VWO | Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets | Vanguard | 1,998.53 | 49,990.72 | 18,322.42 |
EFA | iShares MSCI EAFE | BlackRock | 71.21 | 39,403.42 | 27,901.89 |
EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | BlackRock | -680.74 | 38,428.61 | 52,687.06 |
IVV | iShares S&P 500 | BlackRock | -68.45 | 27,623.66 | 8,943.33 |
QQQ | PowerShares QQQ | Invesco PowerShares | -928.81 | 22,838.71 | 64,152.89 |
TIP | iShares Barclays TIPS Bond | BlackRock | 474.77 | 20,940.52 | 2,029.99 |
VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market | Vanguard | 182.12 | 20,074.04 | 3,328.08 |
IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | BlackRock | 330.66 | 16,629.60 | 120,487.80 |
Year-To-Date Asset Class Flows | |||
Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
U.S. Equity | 17,935.13 | 492,755.75 | 3.64% |
International Equity | 15,752.02 | 294,815.83 | 5.34% |
U.S. Fixed Income | 14,762.59 | 147,906.12 | 9.98% |
International Fixed Income | 3,282.65 | 10,955.06 | 29.96% |
Commodities | -1,597.14 | 105,582.65 | -1.51% |
Currency | 1,702.34 | 5,826.92 | 29.22% |
Leveraged | -96.05 | 13,771.17 | -0.70% |
Inverse | 5,733.54 | 23,188.35 | 24.73% |
Asset Allocation | 191.07 | 918.01 | 20.81% |
Alternatives | 951.09 | 3,376.08 | 28.17% |
Total: | 58,617.25 | 1,099,095.95 | 5.33% |