ETF Outflows Continue In First Week Of April
Investors continued to shun U.S. equity ETFs after two months of outflows.
After registering outflows for two-consecutive months—February and March—ETFs still couldn’t catch a break during the first week of April, as familiar fears about a U.S.-China trade war weighed on sentiment. Investors pulled just over $3 billion out of U.S.-listed ETFs during the five-day period ending April 5, according to FactSet. Year-to-date inflows fell to $57.8 billion.
Once again, U.S. equity ETFs were at the heart of the outflows. Investors pulled $9.7 billion out of the segment, including $6.7 billion from the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and $1.1 billion out of the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP).
Meanwhile, just as in February and March, investors bought up international equity and U.S. fixed-income ETFs amid hopes they’d fare better with U.S. protectionist policies front and center.
U.S. fixed-income ETFs saw $4.9 billion worth of inflows. The iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF (SHV), the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) and the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) were the biggest winners in that space.
The U.S. 10-year bond yield dipped as low as 2.72% on Monday before rebounding to 2.78% as of this writing, still well below the 2.94% high set in February.
In the international equity segment, the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) continued to rake in assets, with a weekly inflow of $483 million. Year-to-date, IEMG has inflows of $6.6 billion.
For a full list of this week’s top inflows and outflows, see the tables below:
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SHV | iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF | 937.30 | 12,247.84 | 8.29% |
| TLT | iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF | 849.82 | 7,062.91 | 13.68% |
| HYG | iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | 611.10 | 14,662.94 | 4.35% |
| XLI | Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund | 533.97 | 13,260.27 | 4.20% |
| XLF | Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund | 503.98 | 32,489.74 | 1.58% |
| IEMG | iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF | 483.48 | 49,208.80 | 0.99% |
| SHY | iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF | 442.28 | 11,952.52 | 3.84% |
| BIL | SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF | 416.29 | 3,478.78 | 13.59% |
| IVV | iShares Core S&P 500 ETF | 380.29 | 140,873.48 | 0.27% |
| FLOT | iShares Floating Rate Bond ETF | 355.77 | 8,224.20 | 4.52% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | -6,706.71 | 248,575.12 | -2.63% |
| XLP | Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund | -1,127.19 | 7,809.68 | -12.61% |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 ETF | -1,004.66 | 41,192.99 | -2.38% |
| DIA | SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust | -455.52 | 20,715.43 | -2.15% |
| HEFA | iShares Currency Hedged MSCI EAFE ETF | -415.73 | 3,665.58 | -10.19% |
| KRE | SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF | -239.95 | 5,048.26 | -4.54% |
| IYR | iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF | -238.34 | 3,507.50 | -6.36% |
| XLV | Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund | -224.88 | 15,208.70 | -1.46% |
| EZU | iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF | -215.39 | 13,865.32 | -1.53% |
| VB | Vanguard Small-Cap ETF | -209.95 | 21,635.53 | -0.96% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | -9,734.50 | 1,885,472.78 | -0.52% |
| International Equity | 155.29 | 829,807.90 | 0.02% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 4,916.16 | 527,749.38 | 0.93% |
| International Fixed Income | 457.89 | 63,833.97 | 0.72% |
| Commodities | 825.00 | 70,760.01 | 1.17% |
| Currency | 12.54 | 1,391.15 | 0.90% |
| Leveraged | 540.32 | 35,554.58 | 1.52% |
| Inverse | -175.51 | 13,394.98 | -1.31% |
| Asset Allocation | -23.10 | 8,823.49 | -0.26% |
| Alternatives | -22.95 | 4,337.37 | -0.53% |
| Total: | -3,048.85 | 3,441,125.62 | -0.09% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) | 1 Week Average Volume | % of Average |
| CLTL | PowerShares Treasury Collateral Portfolio | 1,012 | 6,249 | 617.31% |
| UCI | ETRACS UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index TR ETN | 17,531 | 81,210 | 463.24% |
| QQXT | First Trust NASDAQ-100 Ex-Technology Sector Index Fund | 8,368 | 36,468 | 435.80% |
| DBEM | Xtrackers MSCI Emerging Markets Hedged Equity ETF | 44,939 | 222,075 | 494.17% |
| PEZ | PowerShares DWA Consumer Cyclicals Momentum Portfolio | 3,484 | 13,777 | 395.50% |
| PXI | PowerShares DWA Energy Momentum Portfolio | 13,194 | 49,778 | 377.28% |
| COMT | iShares Commodities Select Strategy ETF | 91,296 | 405,373 | 444.02% |
| FNY | First Trust Mid Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund | 30,904 | 155,135 | 501.99% |
| EXT | WisdomTree U.S. Total Earnings Fund | 5,582 | 19,960 | 357.56% |
| FNI | First Trust Chindia ETF | 29,475 | 102,096 | 346.38% |
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.
