Equity ETFs Top Flows Despite Turmoil

February 12, 2016

Despite another tumultuous week in financial markets, investors added money to their exchange-traded fund holdings in the week ending Thursday, Feb. 11. Safe havens such as Treasurys and gold were in favor once again, but the buying extended to U.S. equity ETFs.

In fact, the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY | A-98) was the most popular ETF of the week by far, gaining $5.9 billion in assets. Following suit were the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100), the First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX (FXU | B-86) and the iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEI | A-73).

Another notable ETP on the inflows list was the VelocityShares 3X Long Crude Oil ETN (UWTI), to which investors added $367 million.

In aggregate, U.S.-listed ETFs of all segments saw a net inflow of $5.5 billion.

Weighing on the aggregate figure was $2.1 billion worth of outflows from international equity ETFs such as the iShares MSCI Germany ETF (EWG |A-96) and the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity ETF (DXJ | B-67).

Other outflow leaders included the FirstTrust Arca Biotechnology ETF (FBT | B-60), the Financial Sector SPDR (XLF | A-93) and the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG | B-68).

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)

Ticker Name Net Flows ($,mm) AUM ($, mm) AUM % Change
SPY SPDR S&P 500 5,927.36 166,732.22 3.69%
GLD SPDR Gold 664.93 28,657.55 2.38%
FXU First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX 661.03 1,309.31 101.97%
IEI iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond 565.35 6,481.24 9.56%
MDY SPDR S&P MidCap 400 398.25 12,972.98 3.17%
UWTI VelocityShares 3X Long Crude Oil ETN 366.53 820.37 80.76%
USMV iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility 305.50 8,137.27 3.90%
VIG Vanguard Dividend Appreciation 286.79 18,303.89 1.59%
DIA SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average Trust 277.47 11,590.29 2.45%
USO United States Oil 274.70 3,183.36 9.44%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker Name Net Flows ($,mm) AUM ($, mm) AUM % Change
FBT First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology -853.13 896.42 -48.76%
QQQ PowerShares QQQ -665.19 34,246.64 -1.91%
XLF Financial Select SPDR -448.66 14,396.36 -3.02%
HYG iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond -431.28 12,556.73 -3.32%
EWG iShares MSCI Germany -368.30 4,807.86 -7.12%
DXJ WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity -322.89 10,720.21 -2.92%
VGK Vanguard FTSE Europe -242.46 12,899.89 -1.84%
IEF iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond -240.14 10,075.37 -2.33%
IWR iShares Russell Mid-Cap -239.68 10,592.51 -2.21%
XLV Health Care Select SPDR -235.19 11,609.41 -1.99%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

Net Flows ($, mm) AUM ($, mm) % of AUM
U.S. Equity 5,314.53 1,055,788.51 0.50%
International Equity -2,103.44 431,812.63 -0.49%
U.S. Fixed Income 1,074.34 341,431.20 0.31%
International Fixed Income -154.55 27,422.92 -0.56%
Commodities 942.96 51,669.65 1.82%
Currency -9.95 1,405.95 -0.71%
Leveraged 543.11 19,942.81 2.72%
Inverse -60.58 19,290.96 -0.31%
Asset Allocation -0.52 5,128.42 -0.01%
Alternatives -77.82 3,013.15 -2.58%
Total: 5,468.08 1,956,906.20 0.28%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Ticker Name Average Volume
(30 Day)
1 Week Average
Volume
% of Average
PSCI PowerShares S&P SmallCap Industrials 17,445 53,515 306.76%
NYF iShares New York AMT-Free Muni Bond 9,632 16,884 175.29%
IHF iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers 139,391 265,806 190.69%
SCHP Schwab U.S. TIPS 178,016 302,324 169.83%
TIPZ PIMCO Broad U.S. TIPS 15,654 24,200 154.59%
IRY SPDR S&P International Health Care 13,422 37,183 277.03%
SJB ProShares Short High Yield 210,769 334,604 158.75%
IAT iShares U.S. Regional Banks 397,012 868,787 218.83%
TLO SPDR Barclays Long Term Treasury 123,158 298,602 242.45%
TILT FlexShares Morningstar U.S. Market Factor Tilt 30,786 35,245 114.48%

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.

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