'IEFA' Hot, 'EMB' Not, In Latest Weekly ETF Flows

'IEFA' Hot, 'EMB' Not, In Latest Weekly ETF Flows

U.S.-listed ETFs had a modest amount of inflows in the week ending Thursday, July 6.

sumit
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Senior ETF Analyst
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Reviewed by: Sumit Roy
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Edited by: Sumit Roy

Inflows into ETFs continued at a slow pace for a third-straight week, according to the latest data from FactSet. U.S.-listed ETFs gathered $2.5 billion in new money in the week ending Thursday, July 6, after seeing inflows of $3.6 billion and $1.4 billion in the previous two weeks, respectively. 

Total assets under management are hovering just below the $3 trillion mark, and year-to-date inflows now stand at $251.6 billion.

In terms of asset classes, the familiar pattern of U.S. equity outflows and international equity inflows showed up again. The former had net redemptions of $1.7 billion, while the latter had net creations of $3.2 billion during the week. 

A big sell-off in the S&P 500 on Thursday briefly pushed the U.S. stock market index to a six-week low. A spike in interest rates around the world prompted the sell-off, with the 10-year Treasury yield hitting a two-month high around 2.4%. 

But the spike in yields and sell-off in bond prices (bond prices and yields move inversely) didn't dissuade investors from putting more money into U.S. fixed-income ETFs. That segment saw inflows of $2.7 billion during the week.

International fixed-income ETFs weren't so fortunate; they had outflows of $929 million during the period. Commodity ETFs were another area to see net outflows, to the tune of $802 million.

IVV & IEFA Remain Hot
Topping the weekly inflows list was the familiar iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA), with creations of $1.6 billion. Year-to-date, the ETF now has seen $11.3 billion of fresh money come into it, which ranks it at No. 2 for 2017 as a whole. 

The only ETF with a higher year-to-date rank is the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV). Its weekly creations of $658 million pushed total 2017 inflows for the fund to a whopping $17.6 billion. IVV is, of course, now the second-largest ETF in the world, with $116.5 billion in assets under management.

A few other notable equity ETFs to make the cut this week were the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF), with creations of $1 billion; the VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH), with creations of $357 million; and the Schwab International Equity ETF (SCHF), with creations of $302 million.

On the fixed-income side, ETFs such as the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG), the iShares $ iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) and the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) were the biggest winners of the week. 

Investors Dump EM Bond ETF
At the other end of the spectrum, the most noticeable outflows came from the iShares JPMorgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF (EMB), with weekly redemptions of $1 billion, representing a decline in AUM of 7.8%.

The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), with its outflows of $518 million and the United States Oil Fund (USO), with its outflows of $319 million, were also salient on the list. 

For a full list of this week's top inflows and outflows, see the tables below:

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)

TickerNameNet Flows ($,mm)AUM ($, mm)AUM % Change
IEFAiShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF1,577.6329,499.395.65%
XLFFinancial Select Sector SPDR Fund999.8925,566.274.07%
AGGiShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF984.5547,588.282.11%
ITOTiShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF738.559,708.218.23%
IVViShares Core S&P 500 ETF657.85116,529.360.57%
LQDiShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF432.7536,111.531.21%
JNKSPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF369.7811,904.183.21%
SMHVanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF356.55748.0891.07%
VWOVanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF326.4056,055.890.59%
SCHFSchwab International Equity ETF301.8110,419.052.98%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

TickerNameNet Flows ($,mm)AUM ($, mm)AUM % Change
SPYSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust-1,283.18236,359.69-0.54%
EMBiShares JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF-1,003.8111,949.22-7.75%
IJHiShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF-888.0539,480.11-2.20%
IWMiShares Russell 2000 ETF-585.4237,722.47-1.53%
MDYSPDR S&P Midcap 400 ETF Trust-541.5018,774.85-2.80%
GLDSPDR Gold Trust-517.5232,969.52-1.55%
DIASPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust-460.2516,241.48-2.76%
IWRiShares Russell Midcap ETF-355.3215,613.93-2.23%
QQQPowerShares QQQ Trust-341.6149,756.18-0.68%
USOUnited States Oil Fund LP-318.692,897.68-9.91%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

 Net Flows ($, mm)AUM ($, mm)% of AUM
U.S. Equity-1,748.981,667,596.90-0.10%
International Equity3,238.68669,806.680.48%
U.S. Fixed Income2,686.52476,748.940.56%
International Fixed Income-928.6451,300.15-1.81%
Commodities-802.3761,734.22-1.30%
Currency25.271,477.161.71%
Leveraged256.2327,951.940.92%
Inverse-137.5516,630.79-0.83%
Asset Allocation21.387,229.710.30%
Alternatives-115.313,814.69-3.02%
Total:2,495.242,984,291.190.08%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

TickerNameAverage Volume
(30 Day)
1 Week Average
Volume
% of Average
CLTLPowerShares Treasury Collateral Portfolio43402925.65%
PHDGPowershares S&P 500 Downside Hedged Portfolio69,527340,500489.74%
VTHRVanguard Russell 3000 ETF19,04671,775376.85%
RJIElements Rogers International Commodity Index-Total Return ETN423,9771,631,467384.80%
PTHPowerShares DWA Healthcare Momentum Portfolio19,074116,617611.40%
HYHGProShares High Yield-Interest Rate Hedged ETF13,34247,801358.28%
PXFPowerShares FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-US Portfolio74,399268,534360.94%
RYHGuggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Healthcare ETF27,486139,008505.74%
FADFirst Trust Multi Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund7,15027,268381.35%
IBNDSPDR Bloomberg Barclays International Corporate Bond ETF51,648152,396295.07%

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 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.