ETF Investors Pick Safe Havens This Week

Dec 07, 2018

Reviewed by: Cinthia Murphy

Edited by: Cinthia Murphy

Investors poured a net of only $2.1 billion into U.S.-listed ETFs in the week ending Thursday, Dec. 6. It was a quiet few days in ETF-land.

Leading demand were U.S. fixed-income ETFs such as the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) and the Vanguard Short-Term Treasury Index ETF (VGSH), the latter seeing an 11% jump in AUM this week.

The appetite for short-term Treasury ETFs this year has been widely talked about, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen a broad investment-grade basket such as the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) lead inflows. Perhaps risk-off is the play-du-jour as we enter the last month of the year.

The net redemptions seen in U.S. equity funds in the past week further support this ongoing flight to safety, except perhaps for the fact that investors have continued to look for value among international stock funds.

As a segment, U.S. equity funds bled $2.1 billion in net redemptions as the stock market dropped. In this past week, here’s how these popular bond funds stacked up in terms of performance relative to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY).

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com

The relatively small haul for the week comes on the heels of a massive November for ETFs, when $50 billion in net assets flowed into U.S.-listed ETFs—the second biggest monthly haul since January.

The latest flows figures put last year’s December totals somewhat out of reach—in December 2017, net creations hit $52 billion. The same can be said about year-to-date net creations, currently sitting at $261 billion. With three weeks to go in the year, it looks like hitting last year’s record $476 billion haul will be a tough act to follow.

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
AGG	iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF	713.07	54,423.11	1.31%
VOO	Vanguard S&P 500 ETF	690.74	100,700.68	0.69%
QQQ	Invesco QQQ Trust	572.50	65,503.22	0.87%
XLV	Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund	531.57	19,833.17	2.68%
VGSH	Vanguard Short-Term Treasury Index ETF	526.24	4,723.08	11.14%
EEM	iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF	521.85	30,757.26	1.70%
IWD	iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF	457.70	38,720.90	1.18%
IEMG	iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF	417.45	51,331.15	0.81%
VTI	Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF	396.78	100,568.60	0.39%
MUB	iShares National Muni Bond ETF	334.36	10,698.40	3.13%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	-4,425.43	256,566.25	-1.72%
IWM	iShares Russell 2000 ETF	-809.22	43,465.46	-1.86%
XLF	Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund	-618.55	27,692.69	-2.23%
VXF	Vanguard Extended Market ETF	-489.06	6,214.21	-7.87%
USMV	iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol U.S.A. ETF	-382.33	18,703.72	-2.04%
VLUE	iShares Edge MSCI U.S.A. Value Factor ETF	-366.23	3,688.34	-9.93%
XLI	Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund	-312.81	11,075.02	-2.82%
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	-259.17	159,259.05	-0.16%
IJR	iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF	-249.73	41,050.17	-0.61%
EWJ	iShares MSCI Japan ETF	-231.41	16,544.33	-1.40%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	-2,134.83	2,029,111.89	-0.11%
International Equity	2,717.84	764,371.28	0.36%
U.S. Fixed Income	1,950.83	574,087.39	0.34%
International Fixed Income	56.74	66,742.66	0.09%
Commodities	-236.77	60,512.87	-0.39%
Currency	-25.65	1,763.58	-1.45%
Leveraged	-151.27	35,046.39	-0.43%
Inverse	-5.53	11,663.10	-0.05%
Asset Allocation	-25.43	9,041.11	-0.28%
Alternatives	-41.36	4,900.81	-0.84%
Total:	2,104.56	3,557,241.09	0.06%

Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	115,295.41	2,029,111.89	5.68%
International Equity	54,951.50	764,371.28	7.19%
U.S. Fixed Income	70,471.15	574,087.39	12.28%
International Fixed Income	11,610.33	66,742.66	17.40%
Commodities	-763.84	60,512.87	-1.26%
Currency	-118.96	1,763.58	-6.75%
Leveraged	7,023.16	35,046.39	20.04%
Inverse	2,171.31	11,663.10	18.62%
Asset Allocation	766.06	9,041.11	8.47%
Alternatives	419.60	4,900.81	8.56%
Total:	261,825.72	3,557,241.09	7.36%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Ticker	Name	Average Volume (30 Day)	1 Week Average Volume	% of Average
RBUS	Nationwide Risk-Based U.S. Equity ETF	1,475	11,723	794.53%
ACWF	iShares Edge MSCI Multifactor Global ETF	130,429	1,027,389	787.70%
DRSK	Aptus Defined Risk ETF	26,987	204,642	758.30%
INKM	SPDR SSGA Income Allocation ETF	12,139	59,034	486.34%
LFEQ	VanEck Vectors NDR CMG Long/Flat Allocation ETF	24,478	117,781	481.16%
PUTW	WisdomTree CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Strategy Fund	51,454	201,954	392.49%
TDTF	FlexShares iBoxx 5 Year Target Duration TIPS Index Fund	330,909	1,257,601	380.04%
QCLN	First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index Fund	15,398	51,124	332.01%
SEA	Invesco Shipping ETF	55,174	160,509	290.91%
FBND	Fidelity Total Bond ETF	77,912	225,868	289.90%

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.

Cinthia Murphy

| Contact: [email protected]

Cinthia Murphy is head of digital experience, advocating for the user in all that etf.com does. She previously served as managing editor and writer for etf.com, specializing in ETF content and multimedia. Cinthia’s experience includes time at Dow Jones and former BridgeNews, covering commodity futures markets in Chicago and Brazil equities in Sao Paulo. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

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ETF Investors Pick Safe Havens This Week

ETF Investors Pick Safe Havens This Week

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