ETFs See Rare Weekly Outflow During Holiday-Shortened Week

U.S.-listed ETFs recorded a rare weekly outflow during the holiday-shortened week ended Friday, Dec. 26.

The trading week was shortened by the Christmas holiday, with markets closed on Thursday, Dec. 25, and operating for only a half day on Wednesday. On a net basis, ETFs saw $569 million of outflows for the week.

Despite the pullback, year-to-date inflows remain robust at more than $1.4 trillion and still have an outside chance of eclipsing $1.5 trillion before the end of the year.

U.S. Equity ETFs Lead Outflows

From an asset class perspective, U.S. equity ETFs were the biggest drag on flows, posting $25.9 billion of outflows for the week.

Those losses were partially offset by inflows elsewhere across the ETF universe. International equity ETFs took in $10.1 billion, while U.S. fixed income ETFs attracted $8.8 billion. International fixed income ETFs and commodities ETFs each gathered $3.1 billion.

The mixed flow picture came even as markets ended the pre-holiday period on a strong note. The S&P 500 hit a fresh record high on Tuesday before Christmas, extending its year-to-date gain to more than 19%. Treasury yields edged lower during the week, with the 10-year yield falling to around 4.13% and remaining within its recent trading range.

Money Flows Into GLD

But the most notable market action last week occurred in precious metals. Gold, silver and platinum all pushed to record highs, a move that was clearly reflected in ETF flows.

The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) led the charge, pulling in $2.6 billion during the week. On a year-to-date basis, GLD has now gathered $23.4 billion of inflows.

More broadly, U.S.-listed gold ETFs have collectively taken in $47.6 billion so far this year.

Several large, core equity ETFs also posted sizable weekly inflows.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) led all funds with $14.9 billion of inflows. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) followed with $6.2 billion, while the Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS) brought in $4.1 billion.

SPYM Leads Outflows

On the outflows side, the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM) saw $6.4 billion leave the fund, followed by the SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Value ETF (SPYV) with $5.9 billion of outflows and the iShares S&P 500 Value ETF (IVE) with $4.7 billion.

Many of these large moves appear to be driven by tax-related “heartbeat” trading rather than organic shifts in investor positioning, a common feature of year-end ETF flow data.

For a full list of the largest inflows and outflows from last week, see the tables below.