High Grade US Bond ETFs Rake In Assets

The first week of September saw investors continue to look for safety.

Cinthia Murphy

Sep 04, 2015

Reviewed by: Cinthia Murphy

Edited by: Cinthia Murphy

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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.

Cinthia Murphy

| Contact: [email protected]

Cinthia Murphy is head of digital experience, advocating for the user in all that etf.com does. She previously served as managing editor and writer for etf.com, specializing in ETF content and multimedia. Cinthia’s experience includes time at Dow Jones and former BridgeNews, covering commodity futures markets in Chicago and Brazil equities in Sao Paulo. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

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High Grade US Bond ETFs Rake In Assets

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