More than $17 billion flowed into U.S. ETFs in the week ended Sept. 20, as total U.S.-listed ETF assets climbed 1.6 percent to almost $1.309 trillion.
ETF investors poured almost $15 billion into equities in the past week, about $11 billion of that in U.S. stock funds alone, as the Federal Reserve’s bid to boost appetite for risk appeared to be working.
Overall, $17.82 billion flowed into U.S.-listed ETFs, as total assets as of the week ended Sept. 20 climbed 1.6 percent to $1.309 trillion from $1.288 trillion a week ago, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse. The current week’s asset total was just shy of a record of nearly $1.311 trillion.
Most of the asset move was due to inflows, but some was due to rising markets too, as the Dow Jones industrial average rose 57 points, or 0.4 percent, in the Thursday-to-Thursday period.
The move into equities was a clear sign markets were responding to the Fed’s latest stimulus plans. The central bank decided to launch its third round of quantitative easing last week, committing to buying $40 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities indefinitely, or at least until the U.S. job market shows signs of a stronger revival.
The top three funds in asset gathering told the risk-on tale in broad brush strokes. Those funds and their inflows are as follows:
- SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), inflows of $5.81 billion
- Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO), inflows of $1.51 billion
- SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD), inflows of $909.7 million
Overall, commodities as an asset class pulled in $1.65 billion.
Last week’s least popular fund was the iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund (NYSEArca: EWJ), which suffered outflows of $331.4 million in the five-day period. The yen has been strengthening in the past week, which some analysts say could lead to a slowing of Japan’s exports.
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | 5,812.00 | 118,602.51 | 5.15% |
| VWO | Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets | 1,506.34 | 58,075.83 | 2.66% |
| GLD | SPDR Gold | 909.73 | 73,954.22 | 1.25% |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | 888.69 | 37,073.70 | 2.46% |
| XLF | Financial Select SPDR | 686.15 | 8,022.05 | 9.35% |
| IVV | iShares S&P 500 | 589.81 | 32,106.21 | 1.87% |
| EWZ | iShares MSCI Brazil | 507.77 | 8,751.60 | 6.16% |
| HYG | iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond | 502.67 | 17,394.69 | 2.98% |
| XLP | Consumer Staples Select SPDR | 469.58 | 6,267.28 | 8.10% |
| GDX | Market Vectors Gold Miners | 359.41 | 10,021.36 | 3.72% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| EWJ | iShares MSCI Japan | -331.14 | 4,304.86 | -7.14% |
| XLU | Utilities Select SPDR | -300.35 | 5,864.98 | -4.87% |
| XLV | Health Care Select SPDR | -275.54 | 4,786.16 | -5.44% |
| TLT | iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond | -265.27 | 2,935.94 | -8.29% |
| XLI | Industrial Select SPDR | -238.09 | 3,498.94 | -6.37% |
| BIL | SPDR Barclays Capital 1-3 Month T-Bill | -197.02 | 1,040.11 | -15.93% |
| OIH | Market Vectors Oil Services | -128.51 | 1,112.83 | -10.35% |
| IEF | iShares Barclays 7-10 Year Treasury Bond | -85.51 | 4,538.37 | -1.85% |
| SHY | iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Treasury Bond | -67.54 | 8,645.63 | -0.78% |
| IEI | iShares Barclays 3-7 Year Treasury Bond | -61.50 | 2,093.89 | -2.85% |
ETF Weekly Daily Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| Leveraged | 9.69 | 13,123.71 | 0.07% |
| Currency | 12.02 | 3,044.20 | 0.39% |
| U.S. Equity | 10,839.03 | 607,775.83 | 1.78% |
| International Equity | 3,881.53 | 297,021.57 | 1.31% |
| Asset Allocation | 18.42 | 2,225.94 | 0.83% |
| Commodities | 1,654.26 | 121,565.58 | 1.36% |
| Inverse | -174.69 | 18,837.08 | -0.93% |
| International Fixed Income | 228.52 | 20,586.18 | 1.11% |
| Alternatives | -30.56 | 4,041.80 | -0.76% |
| - | - | 0.00% | |
| Total: | 17,720.69 | 1,308,778.92 | 1.35% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) |
1 Week Average Volume |
% of Average |
| IWW | iShares Russell 3000 Value | 25,111 | 614,006 | 489.04% |
| IWL | iShares Russell Top 200 | 10,314 | 222,555 | 431.54% |
| EUSA | iShares MSCI USA | 8,622 | 182,286 | 422.86% |
| IYG | iShares Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services | 57,597 | 1,096,716 | 380.82% |
| LVOL | Russell 1000 Low Volatility | 41,646 | 772,720 | 371.09% |
| DBO | PowerShares DB Oil | 345,486 | 6,264,692 | 362.66% |
| DBB | PowerShares DB Base Metals | 245,618 | 4,406,684 | 358.82% |
| CSM | ProShares Credit Suisse 130/30 | 8,490 | 143,530 | 338.13% |
| LEMB | iShares Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond | 40,308 | 670,248 | 332.56% |
| SPHQ | PowerShares S&P 500 High Quality | 41,131 | 671,605 | 326.57% |
Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| AAIT | iShares MSCI All Country Asia Information Technology | 8.74% | 1,317 | 1.34 |
| AXIT | iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Information Technology | 7.46% | 2,326 | 2.66 |
| AXMT | iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Materials | 6.96% | 1,640 | 2.69 |
| AXDI | iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Consumer Discretionary | 6.47% | 3,770 | 3.08 |
| IDXJ | Market Vectors Indonesia Small Cap | 6.36% | 5,999 | 2.41 |
| INXX | EGShares India Infrastructure | 5.47% | 96,911 | 55.00 |
| EMEY | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Energy Sector Capped | 5.47% | 1,130 | 2.16 |
| UBM | ETRACS CMCI Industrial Metals Total Return ETN | 5.20% | 18,750 | 5.57 |
| SCIF | Market Vectors India Small-Cap | 4.92% | 232,179 | 41.51 |
| JUNR | Global X Junior Miners ETF | 4.91% | 83,040 | 2.27 |
Bottom 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| VIIZ | VelocityShares VIX Mid Term ETN | -10.12% | 1,140 | 6.12 |
| GRN | iPath Global Carbon ETN | -8.75% | 3,384 | 1.27 |
| GWO | ELEMENTS Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN | -8.08% | 1,087 | 2.87 |
| CVOL | C-Tracks Exchange-Traded Notes on the Citi Volatility | -6.64% | 319,391 | 4.44 |
| JO | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return ETN | -6.38% | 436,278 | 37.56 |
| SOYB | Teucrium Soybeans | -6.34% | 174,432 | 11.51 |
| OIL | iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return ETN | -5.84% | 5,375,724 | 429.79 |
| UNG | United States Natural Gas | -5.80% | 38,569,908 | 1,066.79 |
| TWTI | RBS Oil Trendpilot ETN | -5.76% | 44,647 | 7.80 |
| OLEM | iPath Pure Beta Crude Oil ETN | -5.71% | 16,130 | 21.28 |
Top 10 YTD Performers
| Ticker | Name | YTD Performance | Weekly Performance | AUM ($, mm) |
| ITB | iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction | 70.38 | 2.54 | 1,390.08 |
| EGPT | Market Vectors Egypt | 67.65 | 3.05 | 57.60 |
| XHB | SPDR S&P Homebuilders | 51.43 | 1.64 | 2,014.10 |
| BBH | Market Vectors Biotech | 49.11 | 3.31 | 135.75 |
| FBT | First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology | 44.55 | 4.19 | 259.82 |
| XBI | SPDR S&P Biotech | 43.48 | 3.30 | 694.96 |
| TUR | iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market | 40.15 | -1.96 | 571.95 |
| IBB | iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology | 38.16 | 2.46 | 2,447.83 |
| TAO | Guggenheim China Real Estate | 35.25 | -0.55 | 20.88 |
| PKB | PowerShares Dynamic Building & Construction | 33.83 | 0.50 | 31.26 |
Bottom 10 YTD Performers
| Ticker | Name | YTD Performance | Weekly Performance | AUM ($, mm) |
| VXX | iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN | -75.37 | -1.34 | 1,613.54 |
| VIXY | ProShares VIX Short-Term | -75.36 | -1.37 | 159.26 |
| VIIX | VelocityShares VIX Short Term ETN | -75.33 | -1.30 | 17.31 |
| CVOL | C-Tracks Exchange-Traded Notes on the Citi Volatility | -74.45 | -6.64 | 4.44 |
| VXZ | iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures ETN | -44.25 | -3.89 | 176.54 |
| VIXM | ProShares VIX Mid-term | -43.91 | -3.68 | 93.74 |
| VIIZ | VelocityShares VIX Mid Term ETN | -43.48 | -10.12 | 6.12 |
| JO | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return ETN | -29.92 | -6.38 | 37.56 |
| KWT | Market Vectors Solar Energy | -28.29 | 0.78 | 11.89 |
| CAFE | iPath Pure Beta Coffee ETN | -27.55 | -4.60 | 1.79 |
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.
