Investors plowed nearly $18 billion into ETFs in June, as the currency-hedged trend that has been so strong this year showed signs of cooling off. Total U.S.-listed ETF assets ended the month at $2.118 trillion—about 1.5 percent lower than a month ago, but about 6 percent more than at the end of last year.
All said, the world of ETFs continues to steadily advance, though June’s inflows weren’t quite enough to offset the 1.62 percent decline of the S&P 500 Index—hence the month-on-month drop in total ETF assets. Still, record first-half inflows of $101 billion put last year’s full-year record asset haul of $243 billion in sight. Second-half ETF flows have historically been more powerful than in the first half.
International equities hauled in the biggest chunk of assets among different asset classes, though U.S. equities brought in nearly as much. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM | A-89) was the most popular fund, and the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (HEDJ | B-45) rounded out the top 10 list.
The “Biggest Losers” list of last month’s least popular funds was peppered with corporate-credit-focused fixed-income funds such as the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG | B-64). The presence of such securities high on the redemptions list tells the tale of investors showing risk aversion in the face of Greece’s solvency issues and the looming threat of higher official U.S. interest rates.
June 2015 Flows By Assets
| Net Flows ($M) | AUM ($M) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 9,283.88 | 1,155,775.66 | 0.80% |
| International Equity | 10,413.12 | 525,646.59 | 1.98% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | -2,041.92 | 300,073.34 | -0.68% |
| International Fixed Income | 321.66 | 26,331.49 | 1.22% |
| Commodities | -279.28 | 55,730.56 | -0.50% |
| Currency | 15.29 | 1,482.61 | 1.03% |
| Leveraged | 442.75 | 24,360.84 | 1.82% |
| Inverse | -352.06 | 19,037.82 | -1.85% |
| Asset Allocation | 43.48 | 5,874.78 | 0.74% |
| Alternatives | 61.46 | 3,702.98 | 1.66% |
| Total: | 17,908.37 | 2,118,016.67 | 0.85% |
June 2015 Top Gainers
| Ticker | Fund | Issuer | Flows | AUM ($M) | Turnover |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | BlackRock | 2,722.45 | 29,527.21 | 84,423.50 |
| EFA | iShares MSCI EAFE | BlackRock | 2,167.95 | 60,941.33 | 27,488.83 |
| IJH | iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap | BlackRock | 1,444.56 | 26,989.79 | 4,271.77 |
| XLV | Health Care Select SPDR | SSgA | 920.04 | 15,321.45 | 12,111.04 |
| XLF | Financial Select SPDR | SSgA | 875.48 | 18,834.93 | 19,227.25 |
| VEA | Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets | Vanguard | 858.66 | 27,825.04 | 4,041.67 |
| QQQ | PowerShares QQQ | Invesco PowerShares | 843.38 | 38,792.24 | 63,025.73 |
| DBEF | Deutsche X-trackers MSCI EAFE Hedged Equity ETF | Deutsche Bank | 773.34 | 12,153.98 | 1,999.20 |
| EWJ | iShares MSCI Japan | BlackRock | 763.64 | 19,591.27 | 6,772.61 |
| HEDJ | WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity | WisdomTree | 679.72 | 19,765.15 | 7,291.69 |
June 2015 Biggest Losers
| Ticker | Fund | Issuer | Flows | AUM ($M) | Turnover |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | SSgA | -2,157.63 | 170,512.09 | 532,248.23 |
| HYG | iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond | BlackRock | -1,747.77 | 13,357.64 | 14,177.33 |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | BlackRock | -1,734.12 | 29,120.14 | 41,269.90 |
| JNK | SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond | SSgA | -1,390.01 | 9,672.83 | 7,766.69 |
| IVV | iShares Core S&P 500 | BlackRock | -966.55 | 67,763.66 | 15,408.52 |
| VNQ | Vanguard REIT | Vanguard | -788.66 | 23,802.01 | 7,841.79 |
| MDY | SPDR S&P MidCap 400 | SSgA | -512.33 | 16,253.47 | 9,263.13 |
| LQD | iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond | BlackRock | -473.91 | 20,997.09 | 8,587.19 |
| FTSM | First Trust Enhanced Short Maturity | First Trust | -459.33 | 135.06 | 561.90 |
| XLU | Utilities Select SPDR | SSgA | -427.99 | 5,536.49 | 11,859.77 |
