'GLD' YTD Inflows Top $10 Billion, 'HYG' Loses Big
The gold fund continues to reign supreme when it comes to popularity among ETF investors, while the junk bond ETF falls out of favor.
On the whole, investors continued to pour money into U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds this week. About $5 billion entered ETFs as a whole, with most of the money going into U.S. equity products, according to FactSet data. On the other hand, fixed-income ETFs saw a sizable outflow—$960 million—but that was all due to one product in particular.
GLD YTD Inflows Top $10 Billion
At the same time, commodities continued to garner solid inflows, to the tune of $771 million, thanks to the popularity of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100), the inflows leader of the year. GLD had inflows of $620 million this week, bringing its year-to-date haul to $10.2 billion.
GLD's weekly flows were enough to put it at No. 4 on this week's inflows list. At the top of that list was the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY | A-97), with inflows of $1.4 billion.
Another notable winner was the First Trust Morningstar Dividend Leaders Index Fund (FDL | A-69), with inflows of nearly $600 million, and the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX | C-75), with inflows of $483 million.
HYG Assets Fall By More Than 10%
Meanwhile, as previously mentioned, one fixed-income product was far ahead of the rest of that asset class when it came to outflows. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG | B-68) saw a whopping $1.8 billion flow out of the product, a nearly 12% reduction in its assets under management.
At the No. 2 position was the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF | A-94), with a $516 million outflow, and at No. 3 was the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DXj | B-63), with $350 million in outflows.
On a percentage basis, the biggest loser on the list was the ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (UVXY) , with a $240 million outflow, representing almost 22% of its AUM.
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | 1,433.91 | 182,685.64 | 0.79% |
| VO | Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund | 994.42 | 14,714.93 | 7.25% |
| VTV | Vanguard Value Index Fund | 623.97 | 21,919.33 | 2.93% |
| GLD | SPDR Gold Trust | 620.45 | 38,028.17 | 1.66% |
| FDL | First Trust Morningstar Dividend Leaders Index Fund | 596.59 | 2,130.56 | 38.89% |
| GDX | VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF | 482.80 | 8,784.50 | 5.82% |
| VEA | Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF | 463.25 | 32,118.05 | 1.46% |
| VUG | Vanguard Growth Index Fund | 461.29 | 20,977.76 | 2.25% |
| VB | Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund | 313.43 | 12,966.23 | 2.48% |
| VWO | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF | 308.79 | 35,393.42 | 0.88% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| HYG | iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | -1,757.69 | 13,432.85 | -11.57% |
| XLF | Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund | -515.71 | 15,794.84 | -3.16% |
| DXJ | WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund | -349.69 | 6,918.85 | -4.81% |
| LQD | iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF | -252.63 | 28,940.94 | -0.87% |
| XLU | Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund | -240.19 | 8,063.70 | -2.89% |
| UVXY | ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF | -239.81 | 866.61 | -21.67% |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 ETF | -239.52 | 25,719.68 | -0.92% |
| XLV | Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund | -230.10 | 12,744.00 | -1.77% |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund | -199.70 | 60,070.16 | -0.33% |
| FXI | iShares China Large-Cap ETF | -198.44 | 3,260.43 | -5.74% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 4,592.74 | 1,237,233.36 | 0.37% |
| International Equity | 151.01 | 470,352.29 | 0.03% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | -959.77 | 378,281.18 | -0.25% |
| International Fixed Income | 207.10 | 35,367.79 | 0.59% |
| Commodities | 770.97 | 68,339.27 | 1.13% |
| Currency | -4.81 | 1,273.54 | -0.38% |
| Leveraged | 37.93 | 23,833.09 | 0.16% |
| Inverse | 291.01 | 21,007.18 | 1.39% |
| Asset Allocation | 112.63 | 5,880.83 | 1.92% |
| Alternatives | -194.04 | 4,403.46 | -4.41% |
| Total: | 5,004.77 | 2,245,972.00 | 0.22% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) | 1 Week Average Volume | % of Average |
| ZROZ | PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon US Treasury Index ETF | 69,087 | 302,271 | 437.52% |
| DDWM | WisdomTree Dynamic Currency Hedged International Equity Fund | 35,535 | 178,748 | 503.02% |
| DFE | WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund | 212,239 | 757,631 | 356.97% |
| ONEO | SPDR Russell 1000 Momentum Focus | 113 | 378 | 335.30% |
| EIS | iShares MSCI Israel Capped ETF | 42,533 | 105,935 | 249.06% |
| IUSG | iShares Core U.S. Growth ETF | 83,832 | 213,372 | 254.52% |
| GNR | SPDR S&P Global Natural Resources ETF | 152,833 | 405,059 | 265.03% |
| DBJP | Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Japan Hedged Equity ETF | 830,287 | 2,041,312 | 245.86% |
| VQT | Barclays ETN+ S&P VEQTOR ETN | 2,520 | 6,529 | 259.09% |
| IUSV | iShares Core U.S. Value ETF | 26,646 | 63,308 | 237.59% |
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.
