High Grade US Bond ETFs Rake In Assets
The first week of September saw investors continue to look for safety.
Investors started the month of September by piling into U.S. fixed-income ETFs, as the stock market continued to sort through a mixed bag of economic indicators both here and abroad.
On the domestic front, the latest read on the jobs market hardly suggested the U.S. economy is soaring, but it was good enough to rekindle expectations that the Federal Reserve might, in fact, deliver its first interest-rate hike this month after some six years.
Those expectations in the face of the ongoing choppy U.S. recovery saw the S&P 500 drop 1.8 percent in the past week ended Thursday, Sept. 3. During that time, U.S. investors showed a strong preference for the relative safety of U.S. fixed-income strategies, particularly shorter-dated high-quality bond funds.
In all, some $6.2 billion landed into U.S. bond ETFs in the past week. Seven out of the 10 most popular ETFs in the past week were U.S. fixed-income strategies, as the table below shows.
Emerging Markets Unloved
What wasn't popular were emerging markets. Concerns about China's economic expansion continued to taint what has already been a difficult year for emerging economies. As a category, international equity ETFs faced outflows of more than $2.1 billion in a week, with the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Market ETF (VWO | B-88) leading the charge, with net redemptions of $1.2 billion. So far in 2015, VWO had slipped more than 17 percent.
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 501 | 3,819.57 | 169,206.11 | 2.31% |
| BIL | SPDR Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill | 872.83 | 2,769.28 | 46.02% |
| SHY | iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond | 864.59 | 12,533.44 | 7.41% |
| IEF | iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond | 702.78 | 8,206.66 | 9.37% |
| TLT | iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond | 641.86 | 6,151.43 | 11.65% |
| BSV | Vanguard Short-Term Bond | 496.56 | 16,685.63 | 3.07% |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 | 487.68 | 33,900.54 | 1.46% |
| LQD | iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond | 471.77 | 21,394.87 | 2.25% |
| SHV | iShares Short Treasury Bond | 352.86 | 3,660.63 | 10.67% |
| XLF | Financial Select SPDR | 326.64 | 17,843.34 | 1.86% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| VWO | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets | -1,220.33 | 36,986.55 | -3.19% |
| XLE | Energy Select SPDR | -694.23 | 11,248.53 | -5.81% |
| IVV | iShares Core S&P 500 | -662.96 | 65,298.12 | -1.01% |
| VXX | iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN | -552.68 | 947.91 | -36.83% |
| RSP | Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight | -400.53 | 9,317.46 | -4.12% |
| EWU | iShares MSCI United Kingdom | -373.35 | 2,776.95 | -11.85% |
| USO | United States Oil | -352.26 | 2,740.49 | -11.39% |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market | -279.92 | 53,397.60 | -0.52% |
| DBEF | Deutsche X-trackers MSCI EAFE Hedged Equity ETF | -256.75 | 13,341.87 | -1.89% |
| UUP | PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish | -245.18 | 1,092.72 | -18.33% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 1,534.13 | 1,103,677.67 | 0.14% |
| International Equity | -2,103.40 | 468,562.76 | -0.45% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 6,248.49 | 312,961.34 | 2.00% |
| International Fixed Income | 371.77 | 25,653.89 | 1.45% |
| Commodities | -523.33 | 51,327.56 | -1.02% |
| Currency | 14.24 | 1,281.35 | 1.11% |
| Leveraged | -114.80 | 23,040.09 | -0.50% |
| Inverse | 217.32 | 19,835.06 | 1.10% |
| Asset Allocation | -18.77 | 5,442.83 | -0.34% |
| Alternatives | -581.38 | 3,701.95 | -15.70% |
| Total: | 5,044.26 | 2,015,484.50 | 0.25% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) | 1 Week Average Volume | % of Average |
| XTL | SPDR S&P Telecom | 23,283 | 92,100 | 395.56% |
| CQQQ | Guggenheim China Technology | 66,197 | 248,724 | 375.73% |
| UST | ProShares Ultra 7-10 Year Treasury | 56,632 | 201,608 | 356.00% |
| OSMS | Barclays OFI SteelPath MLP ETN | 59 | 209 | 352.96% |
| QEMM | SPDR MSCI Emerging Markets Quality Mix | 1,607 | 5,546 | 345.05% |
| NORW | Global X MSCI Norway | 109,175 | 374,024 | 342.59% |
| MDYV | SPDR S&P MidCap 400 Value | 15,260 | 50,457 | 330.65% |
| ADRD | BLDRS Developed Markets 100 ADR | 12,475 | 39,690 | 318.14% |
| FLGE | Credit Suisse FI Large Cap Growth Enhanced ETN | 8,659 | 26,928 | 311.00% |
| FIEU | Credit Suisse FI Enhanced Europe 50 ETN | 11,080 | 34,352 | 310.03% |
Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| CVOL | C-Tracks Citi Volatility ETN | 27.25% | 1,611,312 | 6.69 |
| VXZ | iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures ETN | 14.55% | 5,019,033 | 60.08 |
| VIXM | ProShares VIX Mid-term | 14.07% | 200,222 | 32.79 |
| VIIZ | VelocityShares VIX Mid Term ETN | 14.06% | 25,867 | 0.76 |
| JJE | iPath Bloomberg Energy Subindex Total Return ETN | 12.44% | 3,092 | 1.34 |
| VIIX | VelocityShares VIX Short Term ETN | 10.79% | 956,013 | 14.69 |
| VIXY | ProShares VIX Short-Term | 10.71% | 20,879,015 | 114.52 |
| XVZ | iPath S&P Dynamic VIX ETN | 10.70% | 46,123 | 37.04 |
| VXX | iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN | 10.56% | 510,469,039 | 947.91 |
| OIL | iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return ETN | 10.53% | 47,416,364 | 909.04 |
Bottom 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| CNXT | Market Vectors ChinaAMC SME-ChiNext | -11.30% | 436,792 | 29.49 |
| ASHS | Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 500 China-A Shares Small Cap ETF | -10.20% | 861,794 | 26.49 |
| BRAF | Global X Brazil Financials | -9.02% | 73,509 | 0.82 |
| BRAQ | Global X Brazil Consumer | -7.97% | 5,750 | 3.86 |
| CHIM | Global X China Materials | -7.85% | 5,900 | 1.18 |
| MOTI | Market Vectors Morningstar International Moat ETF | -7.64% | 4,237 | 10.72 |
| HAO | Guggenheim China Small Cap | -7.42% | 1,835,485 | 137.31 |
| BRXX | EGShares Brazil Infrastructure | -7.01% | 61,303 | 9.18 |
| FXI | iShares China Large-Cap | -6.94% | 169,944,321 | 5,615.84 |
| EWA | iShares MSCI Australia | -6.81% | 13,900,781 | 1,177.16 |
Top 10 YTD Performers
| Ticker | Name | YTD Performance | Weekly Performance | AUM ($, mm) |
| RODI | Barclays Return on Disability ETN | 0.75 | 0.00 | 26.11 |
| DXJH | WisdomTree Japan Hedged Health Care | 0.24 | -3.06 | 14.33 |
| BBP | BioShares Biotechnology Products | 0.22 | -4.75 | 27.15 |
| XBI | SPDR S&P Biotech | 0.17 | -4.76 | 2,453.31 |
| PSCH | PowerShares S&P SmallCap Health Care | 0.17 | -1.52 | 268.70 |
| EIRL | iShares MSCI Ireland Capped | 0.17 | -0.43 | 173.89 |
| EDEN | iShares MSCI Denmark Capped | 0.16 | 0.17 | 48.82 |
| MOM | QuantShares U.S. Market Neutral Momentum | 0.15 | -0.91 | 1.32 |
| GRN | iPath Global Carbon ETN | 0.14 | 8.23 | 2.46 |
| PKB | PowerShares Dynamic Building & Construction | 0.12 | 0.83 | 54.27 |
Bottom 10 YTD Performers
| Ticker | Name | YTD Performance | Weekly Performance | AUM ($, mm) |
| GAZ | iPath Bloomberg Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN | -0.44 | -2.17 | 11.14 |
| BRF | Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap | -0.43 | -5.23 | 68.72 |
| EWZS | iShares MSCI Brazil Small-Cap | -0.42 | -4.40 | 26.43 |
| BRXX | EGShares Brazil Infrastructure | -0.42 | -5.03 | 9.18 |
| BRAQ | Global X Brazil Consumer | -0.39 | -7.97 | 3.86 |
| KOL | Market Vectors Coal | -0.39 | -2.70 | 59.94 |
| IDXJ | Market Vectors Indonesia Small Cap | -0.39 | -3.79 | 5.71 |
| FCG | First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas | -0.38 | 0.00 | 188.78 |
| JJN | iPath Bloomberg Nickel Subindex Total Return ETN | -0.38 | -2.58 | 6.34 |
| FBZ | First Trust Brazil AlphaDex | -0.38 | -5.95 | 1.96 |
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.
