EEM continues to rake in assets in aftermath of Vanguard index-change announcement.
Investors continued to pour money into exchange-traded funds in the past week, with more conspicuous inflows into the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca: EEM) one of the week’s top features.
Overall, investors plowed $16.6 billion into ETFs last week—almost $14 billion of that into U.S. equities funds. Total U.S-listed ETF assets rose 2.8 percent to more than $3.312 trillion from the prior week. In our survey, that prior week ended on Wednesday, Nov. 21—the day before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Over the same period, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 185 points, or 1.44 percent, to 13,021.82.
EEM gathered $1.02 billion, and total assets in the fund ended the period at almost $41 billion. The Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO) meanwhile pulled in $119.2 million and ended the week with $56.9 billion, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.
Investors have been pouring money back into EEM since Vanguard Group’s announcement in early October that it planned to change indexes on VWO to a benchmark from FTSE.
Some ETF industry sources have argued that the positive flows for EEM relative to VWO—essentially a reversal of a broad pattern of the past few years—might be related to the fact that institutions still largely favor MSCI benchmarks. That would mean VWO could be falling out of favor among such large investors, no matter how smoothly it trades.
Another feature of the past week was broad inflows into Vanguard funds, though those are phantom flows to the extent that they are related to end-of-month rebalancing going on in the various funds. If history is any guide, next week will be marked by similar outflows from those very same funds, as the rebalancing activity is completed.
The week’s single most popular fund was the world’s biggest exchange-traded fund, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY). It hauled in $5.75 billion.
Last week’s least popular fund was the PowerShares QQQ Trust (NasdaqGM: QQQ), which suffered redemptions of $426 million.
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | 5,745.34 | 110,054.25 | 5.51% |
| VO | Vanguard Mid-Cap | 1,399.76 | 5,215.00 | 36.69% |
| VTV | Vanguard Value | 1,292.19 | 8,010.97 | 19.23% |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | 1,023.06 | 40,972.03 | 2.56% |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | 960.13 | 15,473.80 | 6.62% |
| VB | Vanguard Small-Cap | 841.98 | 5,343.87 | 18.70% |
| VUG | Vanguard Growth | 628.66 | 9,041.44 | 7.47% |
| DIA | SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average Trust | 564.09 | 10,466.85 | 5.70% |
| VBK | Vanguard Small-Cap Growth | 499.67 | 2,616.42 | 23.61% |
| VBR | Vanguard Small-Cap Value | 496.65 | 2,672.29 | 22.83% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| QQQ | PowerShares QQQ | -426.04 | 30,518.29 | -1.38% |
| XLV | Health Care Select SPDR | -341.42 | 5,549.66 | -5.80% |
| TIP | iShares Barclays TIPS Bond | -268.14 | 22,828.12 | -1.16% |
| IEF | iShares Barclays 7-10 Year Treasury Bond | -173.61 | 4,698.86 | -3.56% |
| KBWB | PowerShares KBW Bank | -170.88 | 38.75 | -81.51% |
| TNA | Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3x | -151.42 | 833.74 | -15.37% |
| IYR | iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate | -151.18 | 4,617.49 | -3.17% |
| XOP | SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production | -111.38 | 742.28 | -13.05% |
| CSJ | iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Credit Bond | -105.43 | 9,510.69 | -1.10% |
| GOVT | iShares Barclays U.S. Treasury Bond | -96.25 | 141.96 | -40.41% |
ETF Weekly Daily Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 13,828.20 | 587,875.14 | 2.35% |
| International Equity | 1,981.98 | 308,878.91 | 0.64% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 368.51 | 228,204.46 | 0.16% |
| International Fixed Income | 228.81 | 24,840.29 | 0.92% |
| Commodities | 394.07 | 122,294.35 | 0.32% |
| Currency | -25.77 | 2,871.34 | -0.90% |
| Leveraged | -143.18 | 13,964.36 | -1.03% |
| Inverse | -201.73 | 17,534.44 | -1.15% |
| Asset Allocation | 15.28 | 2,333.53 | 0.65% |
| Alternatives | 147.36 | 3,587.21 | 4.11% |
| Total: | 16,593.54 | 1,312,384.03 | 1.26% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) |
1 Week Average Volume |
% of Average |
| AGOL | ETFS Physical Asian Gold | 1,375 | 31,123 | 452.71% |
| RYT | Guggenheim S&P Equal Weight Technology | 16,955 | 381,119 | 449.56% |
| EMM | SPDR Dow Jones Mid Cap | 5,659 | 113,890 | 402.54% |
| MOAT | Market Vectors Morningstar Wide Moat Research | 69,683 | 1,369,147 | 392.96% |
| PICK | iShares MSCI Global Select Metals & Mining Producers | 60,774 | 1,177,170 | 387.39% |
| CORP | PIMCO Investment Grade Corporate Bond | 31,940 | 524,663 | 328.53% |
| SCHM | Schwab U.S. Mid-Cap | 103,637 | 1,484,219 | 286.43% |
| WPS | iShares S&P Developed Ex-US. Property | 73,170 | 1,019,318 | 278.62% |
| IGN | iShares S&P North American Technology-Multimedia Networking | 21,642 | 288,007 | 266.15% |
| EUSA | iShares MSCI USA | 7,324 | 93,556 | 255.47% |
Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| KWT | Market Vectors Solar Energy | 12.52% | 12,295 | 9.60 |
| TAN | Guggenheim Solar | 11.91% | 161,218 | 42.29 |
| PSCM | PowerShares S&P SmallCap Materials | 7.95% | 1,119 | 6.14 |
| INCO | EGShares India Consumer | 7.78% | 176,527 | 2.37 |
| AXMT | iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Materials | 7.00% | 1,800 | 2.63 |
| EWT | iShares MSCI Taiwan | 6.64% | 34,067,285 | 2,567.79 |
| EWGS | iShares MSCI Germany Small Cap | 6.29% | 4,729 | 8.90 |
| SCIF | Market Vectors India Small-Cap | 6.25% | 731,615 | 74.31 |
| XSD | SPDR S&P Semiconductor | 6.03% | 35,180 | 34.73 |
| PALL | ETFS Physical Palladium | 5.98% | 573,274 | 485.90 |
Bottom 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| EGPT | Market Vectors Egypt | -13.17% | 790,179 | 41.11 |
| UNG | United States Natural Gas | -9.36% | 35,235,198 | 1,162.65 |
| UNL | United States 12 Month Natural Gas | -7.81% | 156,545 | 47.66 |
| VIXY | ProShares VIX Short-Term | -7.34% | 3,545,269 | 143.96 |
| VIIX | VelocityShares VIX Short Term ETN | -7.17% | 2,296,403 | 14.06 |
| VXX | iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN | -7.15% | 132,348,520 | 1,277.94 |
| CVOL | C-Tracks Citi Volatility ETN | -6.64% | 173,463 | 4.41 |
| NAGS | Teucrium Natural Gas | -6.25% | 14,643 | 4.93 |
| DCNG | iPath Pure Beta Seasonal Natural Gas ETN | -5.71% | 36,661 | 36.76 |
| GAZ | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Total Return ETN | -4.95% | 270,569 | 40.38 |
Top 10 YTD Performers
| Ticker | Name | YTD Performance | Weekly Performance | AUM ($, mm) |
| ITB | iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction | 73.87 | 0.73 | 1,621.70 |
| XHB | SPDR S&P Homebuilders | 54.97 | 0.96 | 2,228.93 |
| TUR | iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market | 52.68 | 3.88 | 648.40 |
| TAO | Guggenheim China Real Estate | 51.64 | 4.32 | 58.65 |
| BBH | Market Vectors Biotech | 50.51 | 1.69 | 142.38 |
| INCO | EGShares India Consumer | 50.25 | 7.78 | 2.37 |
| EPHE | iShares MSCI Philippines Investable Market | 43.64 | 2.35 | 173.37 |
| FBT | First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology | 40.94 | 2.79 | 237.11 |
| PKB | PowerShares Dynamic Building & Construction | 40.76 | 2.25 | 59.64 |
| IFAS | iShares FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Asia | 40.06 | 1.39 | 32.91 |
Bottom 10 YTD Performers
| Ticker | Name | YTD Performance | Weekly Performance | AUM ($, mm) |
| VXX | iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN | -79.52 | -7.15 | 1,277.94 |
| VIXY | ProShares VIX Short-Term | -79.51 | -7.34 | 143.96 |
| VIIX | VelocityShares VIX Short Term ETN | -79.48 | -7.17 | 14.06 |
| CVOL | C-Tracks Citi Volatility ETN | -74.45 | -6.64 | 4.41 |
| VXZ | iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures ETN | -53.26 | -4.35 | 78.25 |
| VIXM | ProShares VIX Mid-term | -52.96 | -4.10 | 91.16 |
| VIIZ | VelocityShares VIX Mid Term ETN | -51.96 | -7.66 | 5.09 |
| KWT | Market Vectors Solar Energy | -42.67 | 12.52 | 9.60 |
| TAN | Guggenheim Solar | -42.19 | 11.91 | 42.29 |
| JO | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return ETN | -37.90 | 1.83 | 46.15 |
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.
