ETF Inflows Pick Up Steam, Now $90B

Senior ETF Analyst

May 04, 2018

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

Investors followed up on a strong month of ETF inflows in April by putting more money to work during the first week of May. Altogether, they added $3.5 billion to U.S.-listed ETFs during the week ending Thursday, May 3, according to FactSet. Year-to-date inflows now stand at $90.4 billion.

Just as in April, U.S. fixed-income ETFs continued to pick up new money in the first part of May, with inflows of $1.7 billion. They were only slightly edged out by U.S. equity ETFs, which picked up $1.9 billion.

Staying true to how it’s performed all year long, the U.S. stock market had another roller-coaster week. The S&P 500 briefly fell below 2,600 on Thursday before surging nearly 3% from its lows by Friday to last trade around 2,670.

Trade Concerns

Corporate earnings continued to come out strong during the period, but trade concerns lingered after a U.S. delegation to China that included Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin failed to reach a deal with its Chinese counterpart to avert a trade war. However, they promised that talks would continue in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, a Friday jobs report was met by ambivalence. The report, which showed U.S. unemployment dropped to an 18-year low of 3.9% in April, suggested the economy continues to fire on all cylinders. But it also raised the worry that the Fed may have to hike a total of four times this year to stem growing inflation pressures.

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was essentially flat week-over-week, last trading around 2.95%.

Individual ETF Flows

No big surprises here: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), the iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU) took the top three spots on the inflows list.

On the flip side, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM), the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) topped the weekly outflows list.

For a full list of this week’s top inflows and outflows, see the tables below:

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	2,243.10	253,286.79	0.89%
HYG	iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF	743.57	15,167.84	5.16%
XLU	Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund	545.77	7,427.25	7.93%
VEA	Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF	359.27	71,693.20	0.50%
JNK	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF	323.27	9,328.62	3.59%
SHY	iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF	274.44	12,598.54	2.23%
BSV	Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF	249.45	24,202.87	1.04%
IVE	iShares S&P 500 Value ETF	169.56	15,461.83	1.11%
XLK	Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund	157.64	20,012.63	0.79%
VTI	Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF	152.27	93,040.81	0.16%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
EEM	iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF	-869.91	40,817.54	-2.09%
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	-673.70	141,229.65	-0.47%
XLF	Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund	-525.79	31,546.48	-1.64%
DIA	SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust	-457.19	20,309.98	-2.20%
AGG	iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF	-401.41	55,178.76	-0.72%
XLI	Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund	-309.14	12,037.89	-2.50%
TLT	iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF	-284.67	7,440.34	-3.69%
GLD	SPDR Gold Trust	-236.16	36,282.47	-0.65%
TIP	iShares TIPS Bond ETF	-213.33	24,351.84	-0.87%
IEF	iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF	-202.95	8,599.81	-2.31%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	1,925.85	1,897,519.78	0.10%
International Equity	-229.69	843,364.83	-0.03%
U.S. Fixed Income	1,746.39	534,889.31	0.33%
International Fixed Income	146.91	63,494.94	0.23%
Commodities	-33.86	70,257.86	-0.05%
Currency	-14.04	1,403.79	-1.00%
Leveraged	-45.00	34,865.35	-0.13%
Inverse	-92.18	13,594.41	-0.68%
Asset Allocation	-29.45	9,092.73	-0.32%
Alternatives	94.60	4,253.91	2.22%
Total:	3,469.54	3,471,488.92	0.10%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Ticker	Name	Average Volume (30 Day)	1 Week Average Volume	% of Average
EDOG	ALPS Emerging Sector Dividend Dogs ETF	16,913	85,565	505.90%
USEQ	PowerShares Russell 1000 Enhanced Equal Weight Portfolio	13,029	49,750	381.83%
IHF	iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF	30,546	99,673	326.31%
USDU	WisdomTree Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund	13,696	35,733	260.91%
PXF	PowerShares FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-US Portfolio	153,651	361,512	235.28%
AGT	iShares MSCI Argentina and Global Exposure ETF	31,124	62,814	201.82%
DIV	Global X SuperDividend US ETF	71,620	139,146	194.28%
USLB	PowerShares Russell 1000 Low Beta Equal Weight Portfolio	3,578	6,890	192.54%
EIS	iShares MSCI Israel ETF	9,735	18,011	185.02%
EEMS	iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Small Cap ETF	32,478	58,854	181.21%

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.

Sumit Roy

| Contact: [email protected]

Sumit Roy is the senior ETF analyst for etf.com, where he has worked for 13 years. He creates a variety of content for the platform, including news articles, analysis pieces, videos and podcasts.

Before joining etf.com, Sumit was the managing editor and commodities analyst for Hard Assets Investor. In those roles, he was responsible for most of the operations of HAI, a website dedicated to education about commodities investing.

Though he still closely follows the commodities beat, Sumit covers a much broader assortment of topics for etf.com, with a particular focus on stock and bond exchange-traded funds.

He is the host of etf.com’s Talk ETFs, a popular video series that features weekly interviews with thought leaders in the ETF industry. Sumit is also co-host of Exchange Traded Fridays, etf.com’s weekly podcast series.

He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he enjoys climbing the city’s steep hills, playing chess and snowboarding in Lake Tahoe.

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ETF Inflows Pick Up Steam, Now $90B

ETF Inflows Pick Up Steam, Now $90B

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