ETF Investors Buy The Dip

Senior ETF Analyst

Feb 26, 2021

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

A midweek interest rate scare didn’t stop investors from adding to their ETF holdings this week. On net, a cool $20.2 billion flowed into U.S.-listed ETFs during the week ending Thursday, Feb. 25, bringing year-to-date inflows up to $145 billion. That compares to the $77.2 billion seen at this same time a year ago.

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield briefly topped 1.6% on Thursday, a one-year high, and up significantly from the 0.91% seen at the start of the year.

Bond prices, which move inversely to bond yields, were hammered. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) shed more than 1% week-over-week, taking its year-to-date loss to more than 10%.

Unsurprisingly, TLT and other bond ETFs were among the biggest flows losers of the week. U.S. fixed income ETFs as a group registered outflows of $2.5 billion, led by the aforementioned TLT, the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK), the iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) and the Vanguard Intermediate Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCIT).

Equities Unfazed

In contrast to fixed income ETFs, which shed assets, U.S. equity ETFs saw strong demand. Granted, there were some concerns with regard to growth stocks during the week—higher rates diminish the value of future cash flows—but those worries never got out of hand.

The high-flying ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) had its largest daily outflow on record on Wednesday ($465 million), but for the week as a whole, the ETF eked out an inflow of $9 million. In fact, no ARK funds made an appearance on the weekly top outflows list, while one made an appearance on the top inflows list: the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF).

Other in-demand ETFs during the week included the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF).

XLF, in particular, benefited from the steepening of the yield curve. The difference between the five-year and 30-year Treasury bond yields reached a 6.5-year high above 1.6% during the week.

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
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	2,471.90	253,767.50	0.97%
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	2,145.17	337,298.85	0.64%
XLF	Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund	2,075.45	34,478.34	6.02%
IWM	iShares Russell 2000 ETF	1,255.62	67,680.94	1.86%
TQQQ	ProShares UltraPro QQQ	1,101.40	10,849.78	10.15%
VOO	Vanguard S&P 500 ETF	935.17	197,150.98	0.47%
VTI	Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF	645.58	216,639.85	0.30%
VXUS	Vanguard Total International Stock ETF	640.93	42,652.97	1.50%
BUG	Global X Cybersecurity ETF	591.28	876.06	67.49%
ARKF	ARK Fintech Innovation ETF	552.39	4,807.56	11.49%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
JNK	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF	-1,769.28	9,239.30	-19.15%
LQD	iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF	-1,603.87	45,427.97	-3.53%
GLD	SPDR Gold Trust	-1,526.53	63,997.95	-2.39%
XLK	Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund	-526.17	38,167.90	-1.38%
VCIT	Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF	-457.99	43,416.70	-1.05%
TLT	iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF	-438.90	14,075.57	-3.12%
IEF	iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF	-419.80	13,887.77	-3.02%
USMV	iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF	-362.43	28,880.34	-1.25%
PFF	iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF	-335.71	17,838.62	-1.88%
ACWV	iShares MSCI Global Min Vol Factor ETF	-328.27	5,290.29	-6.21%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	15,831.38	3,317,665.09	0.48%
International Equity	6,158.51	1,180,051.90	0.52%
U.S. Fixed Income	-2,549.77	974,096.55	-0.26%
International Fixed Income	584.98	129,015.60	0.45%
Commodities	-1,545.70	141,808.76	-1.09%
Currency	24.03	2,018.89	1.19%
Leveraged	1,710.17	52,263.99	3.27%
Inverse	-95.02	11,933.55	-0.80%
Asset Allocation	37.91	14,156.98	0.27%
Alternatives	82.68	6,285.03	1.32%
Total:	20,239.18	5,829,296.34	0.35%

Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	53,992.02	3,317,665.09	1.63%
International Equity	60,983.46	1,180,051.90	5.17%
U.S. Fixed Income	18,642.44	974,096.55	1.91%
International Fixed Income	7,424.80	129,015.60	5.75%
Commodities	-612.58	141,808.76	-0.43%
Currency	103.38	2,018.89	5.12%
Leveraged	690.78	52,263.99	1.32%
Inverse	2,127.25	11,933.55	17.83%
Asset Allocation	607.99	14,156.98	4.29%
Alternatives	1,067.00	6,285.03	16.98%
Total:	145,026.54	5,829,296.34	2.49%

Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded

Ticker	Name	Weekly Performance	Weekly Volume	AUM ($, mm)
JMBS	Janus Henderson Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF	0.00%	57,879	692.09
AADR	AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright ADR ETF	0.00%	1,979	83.83
ABEQ	Absolute Core Strategy ETF	0.00%	62,156	40.60
ACES	ALPS Clean Energy ETF	0.00%	153,189	1,020.04
ACIO	Aptus Collared Income Opportunity ETF	0.00%	22,745	182.94
ACSI	American Customer Satisfaction ETF	0.00%	12,138	72.18
ACTV	LeaderShares Activist Leaders ETF	0.00%	3,249	53.02
ACVF	American Conservative Values ETF	0.00%	1,159	5.15
ACWF	iShares MSCI Global Multifactor ETF	0.00%	9,637	97.59
ACWI	iShares MSCI ACWI ETF	0.00%	2,012,281	15,108.62

Top 10 YTD Performers

Ticker	Name	YTD Performance	Weekly Performance	AUM ($, mm)
CNBS	Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF	81.95%	0.00%	139.41
POTX	Global X Cannabis ETF	74.34%	0.00%	228.21
BDRY	Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF	73.25%	0.00%	31.70
THCX	The Cannabis ETF	66.72%	0.00%	184.30
MJ	ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF	62.09%	0.00%	1,816.63
YOLO	AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF	52.59%	0.00%	441.77
BLOK	Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF	48.63%	0.00%	1,145.57
TOKE	Cambria Cannabis ETF	45.50%	0.00%	37.14
PXE	Invesco Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production ETF	42.60%	0.00%	24.02
PSCE	Invesco S&P SmallCap Energy ETF	41.91%	0.00%	71.15

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.

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.

View Bio Follow Author

ETF Investors Buy The Dip

ETF Investors Buy The Dip

Related Stories

Related Topics

More From Sumit Roy

Related Media