ETF Outflows Continue In First Week Of April

Investors continued to shun U.S. equity ETFs after two months of outflows.

Sumit Roy

Senior ETF Analyst

Apr 06, 2018

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

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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.

Sumit Roy

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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 Outflows Continue In First Week Of April

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