Investors Flock To Fixed Income ETFs

Senior ETF Analyst

Sep 06, 2019

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

Investors tiptoed back into ETFs this week after pulling money out of the space in August. On net, nearly $6 billion flowed into U.S.-listed ETFs during the week ending Thursday, Sep. 5, according to FactSet. That puts year-to-date inflows at $150.7 billion, less than the $176.1 billion at this same time last year.

As seen all year long, most of this week’s inflows went into U.S. fixed income ETFs. That segment picked up $3.7 billion, led by a $1.1 billion inflow into the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT).

The iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF), the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCIT), the iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (SHY) and the iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEI) also saw strong interest during the week.

Markets continue to expect the Fed to cut rates later this month, but yields on Treasuries spiked from their recent lows following the release of better-than-expected economic data and word that the U.S. and China would hold trade talks next month.

Investors Tepid On Equities

Meanwhile, on the equities side, a modest $258 million and $942 million flowed into U.S. and international ETFs, respectively.

Stocks bounced back thanks to better economic data and trade talk hopes, but growth concerns kept investors from adding to their holdings more aggressively.

The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), the Invesco Russell 1000 Dynamic Multifactor ETF (OMFL) and the iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol U.S.A. ETF (USMV) were among the most popular equity ETFs of the week.

The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) also saw some interest as gold prices hit fresh six-year highs. The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) had inflows of nearly half a billion of its own during the week.

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
TLT	iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF	1,090.43	17,864.08	6.10%
IEF	iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF	820.33	19,141.49	4.29%
VCIT	Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF	578.46	24,654.06	2.35%
SHY	iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF	501.64	18,180.76	2.76%
VTI	Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF	496.73	118,814.72	0.42%
GLD	SPDR Gold Trust	473.23	44,226.62	1.07%
OMFL	Invesco Russell 1000 Dynamic Multifactor ETF	469.52	1,526.70	30.75%
USMV	iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol U.S.A. ETF	358.30	33,959.03	1.06%
GDX	VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF	343.35	12,563.77	2.73%
IEI	iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF	319.34	7,869.77	4.06%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
HYG	iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF	-720.68	16,617.63	-4.34%
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	-543.89	262,271.45	-0.21%
LQD	iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF	-539.71	35,915.87	-1.50%
IWM	iShares Russell 2000 ETF	-365.28	39,313.87	-0.93%
IJR	iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF	-315.54	42,608.03	-0.74%
XLV	Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund	-302.02	16,482.42	-1.83%
SHV	iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF	-265.41	24,063.72	-1.10%
DIA	SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust	-250.66	21,241.10	-1.18%
IWV	iShares Russell 3000 ETF	-205.81	9,426.49	-2.18%
SPTL	SPDR Portfolio Long Term Treasury ETF	-194.50	2,565.21	-7.58%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	258.27	2,247,118.06	0.01%
International Equity	941.71	792,067.36	0.12%
U.S. Fixed Income	3,724.20	720,574.56	0.52%
International Fixed Income	403.41	82,095.29	0.49%
Commodities	619.49	81,765.34	0.76%
Currency	15.55	1,500.98	1.04%
Leveraged	-482.49	36,940.57	-1.31%
Inverse	384.75	12,623.39	3.05%
Asset Allocation	47.29	9,940.82	0.48%
Alternatives	78.16	4,476.70	1.75%
Total:	5,990.34	3,989,103.06	0.15%

Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	48,039.88	2,247,118.06	2.14%
International Equity	-3,245.60	792,067.36	-0.41%
U.S. Fixed Income	88,767.33	720,574.56	12.32%
International Fixed Income	11,478.35	82,095.29	13.98%
Commodities	6,517.27	81,765.34	7.97%
Currency	-287.40	1,500.98	-19.15%
Leveraged	-5,968.93	36,940.57	-16.16%
Inverse	4,816.34	12,623.39	38.15%
Asset Allocation	83.43	9,940.82	0.84%
Alternatives	474.33	4,476.70	10.60%
Total:	150,675.00	3,989,103.06	3.78%

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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Investors Flock To Fixed Income ETFs

Investors Flock To Fixed Income ETFs

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