ETF Investors Pick Safe Havens This Week
Asset flows in the first week of December put last year’s record haul out of reach.
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.