Fixed Income ETFs Lead Strong Weekly Inflows

Senior ETF Analyst

Jan 17, 2020

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

U.S. stocks kept humming this week as the S&P 500 rallied to fresh record highs. The venerable index topped 3,325 for the first time ever, bringing its year-to-date gains up to nearly 3%.

In turn, investors kept plowing money into U.S.-listed ETFs. A cool $13.4 billion flowed into the space during the week ending Thursday, Jan. 16, sending year-to-date inflows to $35.2 billion, well ahead of year-ago levels of $8.4 billion.

Strong Inflows For Fixed Income ETFs

Interestingly, though equity ETFs had solid inflows during the week, the bulk of new money went into U.S. fixed income products. Those funds picked up $5.6 billion of cash, more than the $2.9 billion that went into U.S. equity ETFs and the $2.8 billion that went into international equity ETFs.

On a year-to-date basis, U.S. equity ETFs are still ahead, $14.2 billion to $11.4 billion, but the gap is much smaller than you'd expect considering the record run in stocks. So far this year, most fixed income ETFs are up thanks to a modest decline in interest rates (bond prices and rates move inversely). The iShares Core Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG), for example, has returned about 0.6%.

Individual Names

Taking a look at individual ETF flows, the Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB) headlined the top inflows list, with creations of $1.5 billion. It was joined by the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), the iShares ESG MSCI U.S.A. ETF (ESGU) and the aforementioned AGG, among others.

Meanwhile, on the outflows side, the Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCSH) had by far the largest redemptions of the week, at $1.6 billion. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), the iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEI) and the iShares Edge MSCI U.S.A. Size Factor ETF (SIZE) also registered outflows.

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
VB	Vanguard Small-Cap ETF	1,450.22	29,327.90	4.94%
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	1,315.16	205,983.79	0.64%
TLT	iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF	1,178.02	18,124.28	6.50%
ESGU	iShares ESG MSCI U.S.A. ETF	1,152.12	2,657.90	43.35%
FTCS	First Trust Capital Strength ETF	891.86	4,398.89	20.27%
AGG	iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF	823.46	70,953.59	1.16%
MBB	iShares MBS ETF	802.69	22,672.55	3.54%
VCIT	Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF	779.72	27,068.68	2.88%
HYG	iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF	767.21	19,962.48	3.84%
VUG	Vanguard Growth ETF	642.87	48,961.77	1.31%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
VCSH	Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF	-1,557.40	24,322.53	-6.40%
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	-1,343.39	315,360.31	-0.43%
IWM	iShares Russell 2000 ETF	-981.65	47,203.65	-2.08%
IEI	iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF	-971.82	8,768.51	-11.08%
BIV	Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond ETF	-754.16	12,986.02	-5.81%
XLE	Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund	-398.07	10,866.81	-3.66%
SIZE	iShares Edge MSCI U.S.A. Size Factor ETF	-370.58	1,290.14	-28.72%
IWD	iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF	-355.33	42,044.63	-0.85%
VTV	Vanguard Value ETF	-345.90	55,836.10	-0.62%
IYR	iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF	-332.87	4,156.80	-8.01%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	2,911.22	2,590,453.41	0.11%
International Equity	2,786.08	911,694.05	0.31%
U.S. Fixed Income	5,588.41	773,497.93	0.72%
International Fixed Income	899.89	92,498.52	0.97%
Commodities	204.39	82,938.33	0.25%
Currency	26.52	1,396.28	1.90%
Leveraged	428.97	41,574.58	1.03%
Inverse	219.06	11,355.41	1.93%
Asset Allocation	175.06	11,023.02	1.59%
Alternatives	143.65	4,630.30	3.10%
Total:	13,383.25	4,521,061.83	0.30%

Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	14,156.07	2,590,453.41	0.55%
International Equity	6,910.75	911,694.05	0.76%
U.S. Fixed Income	11,444.01	773,497.93	1.48%
International Fixed Income	1,721.32	92,498.52	1.86%
Commodities	72.79	82,938.33	0.09%
Currency	32.45	1,396.28	2.32%
Leveraged	372.58	41,574.58	0.90%
Inverse	121.50	11,355.41	1.07%
Asset Allocation	208.72	11,023.02	1.89%
Alternatives	177.68	4,630.30	3.84%
Total:	35,217.87	4,521,061.83	0.78%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Ticker	Name	Average Volume (30 Day)	1 Week Average Volume	% of Average
ESGU	iShares ESG MSCI U.S.A. ETF	632,842	3,909,311	617.74%
ESGE	iShares ESG MSCI EM ETF	947,028	5,352,401	565.18%
EEMA	iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Asia ETF	70,979	308,752	434.99%
SIZE	iShares Edge MSCI U.S.A. Size Factor ETF	252,876	1,088,547	430.47%
CSML	IQ Chaikin U.S. Small Cap ETF	53,533	185,808	347.09%
OSCV	Opus Small Cap Value ETF	11,041	42,466	384.62%
IXN	iShares Global Tech ETF	85,483	288,312	337.27%
SHYG	iShares 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond ETF	1,267,728	4,121,650	325.12%
EMHY	iShares Emerging Markets High Yield Bond ETF	134,298	471,273	350.92%
UOCT	Innovator S&P 500 Ultra Buffer ETF - October	22,417	72,718	324.38%

Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded

Ticker	Name	Weekly Performance	Weekly Volume	AUM ($, mm)
POTX	Global X Cannabis ETF	19.90%	128,467	8.34
THCX	The Cannabis ETF	15.15%	282,000	20.26
MJ	ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF	14.05%	8,286,264	812.52
CNBS	Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF	13.56%	42,095	5.01
YOLO	AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF	11.35%	373,942	50.20
TOKE	Cambria Cannabis ETF	10.25%	52,360	11.36
LIT	Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF	6.86%	1,234,712	539.35
PALL	Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF	6.32%	143,657	367.57
NIB	iPath Bloomberg Cocoa Subindex Total Return ETN	5.26%	429,639	37.37
PBW	Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF	4.60%	633,355	265.52

Top 10 YTD Performers

Ticker	Name	YTD Performance	Weekly Performance	AUM ($, mm)
PALL	Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF	19.49%	6.32%	367.57
POTX	Global X Cannabis ETF	11.98%	19.90%	8.34
CHIK	Global X MSCI China Information Technology ETF	11.48%	2.61%	6.57
CHIC	Global X MSCI China Communication Services ETF	10.78%	1.22%	23.93
CQQQ	Invesco China Technology ETF	10.75%	1.58%	665.83
KWEB	KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF	10.70%	1.58%	2,535.07
NGE	Global X MSCI Nigeria ETF	10.69%	-0.18%	43.49
THCX	The Cannabis ETF	10.67%	15.15%	20.26
PBW	Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF	10.11%	4.60%	265.52
BUG	Global X Cybersecurity ETF	9.77%	2.21%	2.70

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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Fixed Income ETFs Lead Strong Weekly Inflows

Fixed Income ETFs Lead Strong Weekly Inflows

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