Huge Weekly Inflows For Corporate Bond ETF

Senior ETF Analyst

Mar 27, 2020

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

It was another volatile week on Wall Street, as the S&P 500 sagged to a three-year low on Monday before rocketing up by 17.6% over the next three sessions, the best three-day stretch since the 1930s.

Yet, overall ETF flows didn't reflect all that activity. On net, a mere $2.8 billion flowed out of U.S.-listed ETFs during the week ending Thursday, March 26. That puts year-to-date inflows at $66.8 billion, still ahead of last year's $48.1 billion pace.

Huge Inflow For 'LQD'

While headline flows figures were rather tepid, individual ETFs saw a flurry of activity. The iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) had $5.2 billion of inflows this week, a sizable haul for the $35 billion fund. On Monday, the Federal Reserve announced a new facility that would purchase investment-grade corporate bond ETFs to help thaw strained credit markets.

Meanwhile, though the Fed won't be purchasing them, junk bond ETFs like the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) and the iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) also saw interest from investors this week.

So too did the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), which bounced back more than 10% from its lows of last week. Gold prices were last trading around $1,620/oz.

'AGG' & 'MINT' Shunned

On the outflows side, the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) and the PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active ETF (MINT) were the biggest flows losers of the period.

MINT stunned investors last week after the fund tumbled nearly 5% from its highs. Such a move was unexpected for a fund that seeks to be a money market alternative.

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
LQD	iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF	5,215.13	34,519.54	15.11%
QQQ	Invesco QQQ Trust	2,591.71	81,439.18	3.18%
GLD	SPDR Gold Trust	1,588.11	49,205.58	3.23%
BIL	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF	1,479.61	18,048.81	8.20%
VOO	Vanguard S&P 500 ETF	1,415.29	112,895.51	1.25%
SHY	iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF	1,348.40	24,399.40	5.53%
JNK	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF	1,086.89	6,687.37	16.25%
HYG	iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF	1,063.17	14,369.70	7.40%
XLF	Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund	877.17	14,959.29	5.86%
IVW	iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF	803.92	20,581.73	3.91%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	-3,517.57	154,382.91	-2.28%
AGG	iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF	-2,529.03	66,947.57	-3.78%
MINT	PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active ETF	-1,198.47	11,850.83	-10.11%
JPST	JPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF	-993.25	9,328.88	-10.65%
BBEU	JPMorgan BetaBuilders Europe ETF	-902.51	2,007.57	-44.96%
VXX	iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN	-841.64	1,136.27	-74.07%
BIV	Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond ETF	-794.00	11,717.69	-6.78%
VWO	Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF	-731.51	49,260.09	-1.49%
VNQ	Vanguard Real Estate ETF	-704.57	25,286.60	-2.79%
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	-702.26	229,924.06	-0.31%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	-261.71	1,912,337.92	-0.01%
International Equity	-2,556.91	663,647.67	-0.39%
U.S. Fixed Income	-2,676.19	752,649.73	-0.36%
International Fixed Income	-1,672.92	80,261.64	-2.08%
Commodities ETFs	2,670.47	88,450.59	3.02%
Currency	371.43	1,880.46	19.75%
Leveraged	1,075.03	26,533.24	4.05%
Inverse	1,423.83	15,957.75	8.92%
Asset Allocation	-177.01	8,196.77	-2.16%
Alternatives	-975.07	4,698.16	-20.75%
Total:	-2,779.05	3,554,613.93	-0.08%

Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	37,530.40	1,912,337.92	1.96%
International Equity	1,677.52	663,647.67	0.25%
U.S. Fixed Income	13,020.17	752,649.73	1.73%
International Fixed Income	-1,773.94	80,261.64	-2.21%
Commodities ETFs	7,886.59	88,450.59	8.92%
Currency	570.36	1,880.46	30.33%
Leveraged	7,533.29	26,533.24	28.39%
Inverse	1,779.27	15,957.75	11.15%
Asset Allocation	-65.07	8,196.77	-0.79%
Alternatives	-1,386.73	4,698.16	-29.52%
Total:	66,771.86	3,554,613.93	1.88%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Ticker	Name	Average Volume (30 Day)	1 Week Average Volume	% of Average
TIPX	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-10 Year TIPS ETF	142,546	676,900	474.87%
ARCM	Arrow Reserve Capital Management ETF	3,652	7,568	207.20%
DIVC	C-Tracks ETN - Miller/Howard Strategic Dividend Reinvestor	103	281	272.76%
PBJ	Invesco Dynamic Food & Beverage ETF	26,096	65,491	250.96%
GIGB	Goldman Sachs Access Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF	148,834	571,129	383.74%
UEVM	VictoryShares USAA MSCI Emerging Markets Value Momentum ETF	14,174	32,223	227.34%
HTAB	Hartford Schroders Tax-Aware Bond ETF	3,536	10,988	310.72%
SPIP	SPDR Portfolio TIPS ETF	936,311	2,637,395	281.68%
PTH	Invesco DWA Healthcare Momentum ETF	36,368	117,800	323.91%
GQRE	FlexShares Global Quality Real Estate Index Fund	48,073	169,955	353.53%

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

Ticker	Name	Weekly Performance	Weekly Volume	AUM ($, mm)
PALL	Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF	43.84%	242,165	269.23
GDXJ	VanEck Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF	35.73%	156,605,334	4,015.32
SGDJ	Sprott Junior Gold Miners ETF	33.59%	369,001	39.99
SILJ	ETFMG Prime Junior Silver Miners ETF	31.85%	2,995,133	109.53
GOEX	Global X Gold Explorers ETF	31.02%	176,140	33.51
JETS	US Global Jets ETF	30.66%	13,344,944	285.12
GDX	VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF	28.03%	358,886,210	11,166.57
GOAU	U.S. Global GO Gold and Precious Metal Miners ETF	27.83%	468,749	50.11
RING	iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners ETF	27.22%	1,582,065	318.75
SLVP	iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners ETF	25.40%	561,863	79.96

Top 10 YTD Performers

Ticker	Name	YTD Performance	Weekly Performance	AUM ($, mm)
VIIX	VelocityShares Daily Long VIX Short-Term ETN	206.17%	-17.13%	64.08
VIXY	ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF	205.31%	-16.83%	238.79
VXX	iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN	201.72%	-15.94%	1,136.27
XVZ	iPath S&P 500 Dynamic VIX ETN	87.35%	-15.69%	4.96
VXZ	iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures ETN	74.23%	-10.14%	48.58
VIXM	ProShares VIX Mid-Term Futures ETF	73.23%	-9.91%	36.68
ZROZ	PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon US Treasury Index ETF	29.69%	5.52%	350.71
EDV	Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury ETF	27.53%	5.80%	1,439.50
TAIL	Cambria Tail Risk ETF	21.58%	-2.50%	116.58
PALL	Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF	21.14%	43.84%	269.23

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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Huge Weekly Inflows For Corporate Bond ETF

Huge Weekly Inflows For Corporate Bond ETF

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