ETFs See Third Weekly Outflow In 5 Weeks

Senior ETF Analyst

Mar 09, 2018

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

After two weeks of solid gains, ETF flows slipped back into the red this week amid gnawing concerns about trade wars. In total, U.S.-listed ETFs had outflows of $9.6 billion during the week ending Thursday, March 8, according to FactSet. That’s the third weekly outflow in five weeks.

Still, even with the slippage, ETF flows remain well in positive territory for the year thanks to a strong January. Year-to-date inflows last stood at $52.7 billion.

As has been the case in recent weeks, investors’ trepidation remained focused on U.S. equity ETFs, which had outflows of $9.3 billion just on its own. The other main categories, including international equity ETFs, U.S. fixed-income ETFs and commodity ETFs, didn’t see much flows action in either direction.

One fund alone was largely responsible for the poor showing of U.S. equity ETFs. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) had redemptions of a whopping $12.8 billion during the period, bringing its year-to-date outflows to $18.5 billion.

Strip out SPY and the picture doesn’t look nearly as bad. In fact, a number of U.S.-listed ETFs garnered solid inflows during the week, including the iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA) and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), which took in a combined $1.9 billion.

On Thursday, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas called IVV, IEFA, the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) and the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) BlackRock’s "Four Headed Monster," which are responsible for more than half of the total year-to-date inflows for ETFs.

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
IEFA	iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF	1,842.15	53,315.74	3.58%
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	1,096.22	156,651.05	0.70%
XLP	Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund	642.74	8,076.25	8.65%
FDN	First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index Fund	521.88	7,100.73	7.93%
VOO	Vanguard S&P 500 ETF	490.21	90,347.10	0.55%
IWM	iShares Russell 2000 ETF	379.03	41,221.85	0.93%
VAW	Vanguard Materials ETF	334.48	2,771.11	13.73%
KRE	SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF	253.71	5,401.63	4.93%
GDX	VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF	233.02	7,680.83	3.13%
ISTB	iShares Core 1-5 Year USD Bond ETF	231.29	1,825.18	14.51%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	-12,749.86	264,010.83	-4.61%
AGG	iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF	-914.71	53,615.12	-1.68%
VGT	Vanguard Information Technology ETF	-820.18	18,858.98	-4.17%
XLI	Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund	-542.92	12,412.18	-4.19%
EZU	iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF	-399.47	15,658.35	-2.49%
JNK	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF	-359.11	8,680.67	-3.97%
EPP	iShares MSCI Pacific ex-Japan ETF	-297.65	2,948.15	-9.17%
XLRE	Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund	-296.38	2,235.03	-11.71%
HYG	iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF	-264.19	14,911.92	-1.74%
DXJ	WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund	-257.86	6,859.96	-3.62%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	-9,345.18	1,955,819.49	-0.48%
International Equity	300.88	842,207.97	0.04%
U.S. Fixed Income	-610.57	518,540.16	-0.12%
International Fixed Income	-73.69	62,562.58	-0.12%
Commodities	128.31	69,546.30	0.18%
Currency	-18.83	1,355.42	-1.39%
Leveraged	48.13	36,529.81	0.13%
Inverse	55.73	13,682.99	0.41%
Asset Allocation	32.60	8,926.22	0.37%
Alternatives	-161.06	4,292.45	-3.75%
Total:	-9,643.67	3,513,463.39	-0.27%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Ticker	Name	Average Volume (30 Day)	1 Week Average Volume	% of Average
HYLV	IQ S&P High Yield Low Volatility Bond ETF	5,620	28,208	501.94%
BFOR	ALPS Barron’s 400 ETF	34,622	147,366	425.65%
EELV	PowerShares S&P Emerging Markets Low Volatility Portfolio	79,078	179,936	227.54%
HFXE	IQ 50 Percent Hedged FTSE Europe ETF	3,929	7,634	194.28%
IBDC	iShares iBonds Mar 2020 Term Corporate ETF	12,048	22,560	187.25%
AGT	iShares MSCI Argentina and Global Exposure ETF	31,781	59,322	186.66%
IGRO	iShares International Dividend Growth ETF	6,782	12,113	178.61%
AGGP	IQ Enhanced Core Plus Bond U.S. ETF	268,567	439,706	163.72%
CSML	IQ Chaikin U.S. Small Cap ETF	112,106	181,024	161.48%
IBDD	iShares iBonds Mar 2023 Term Corporate ETF	9,921	14,094	142.06%

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

| Contact: [email protected]

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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ETFs See Third Weekly Outflow In 5 Weeks

ETFs See Third Weekly Outflow In 5 Weeks

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