Investors Plow Into Treasury ETFs This Week

Senior ETF Analyst

Jun 07, 2019

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

Treasuries, Treasuries and more Treasuries. That’s what ETF investors were interested in this week as bond prices surged and interest rates tumbled. All throughout the week, expectations grew that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year, as economic data weakens and the U.S. fights trade wars on multiple fronts.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield plunged to as low as 2.05%. The yield accelerated to the downside after payroll processor ADP reported that private employers only added 27,000 jobs in May. The official government jobs report on Friday wasn’t as weak, but also showed a marked deceleration in job growth, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by only 75,000.

Futures markets now expect the Fed to cut rates as early as the July meeting, and then again in September.

Hefty Treasury ETF Inflows

With rate cut expectations picking up steam, investors plowed $10.4 billion into U.S. fixed income ETFs, including billions into the iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF), the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL).

Seven of the 10 ETFs on the top inflows list were bond funds, most of them focused on Treasuries.

Safe haven gold also caught a bid; the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) garnered weekly inflows of $694 million.

Net Outflows For Equity ETFs

On the flip side, U.S. equity ETFs and international equity ETFs had modest outflows this week. The S&P 500 fell as much as 7.6% below its all-time high before snapping back vigorously on Fed rate cut hopes.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) were the biggest equity ETF flows winners. On the other hand, the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) topped the outflows list.

Year-to-date inflows for all U.S.-listed ETFs now stand at $75.2 billion, compared with $119.7 billion at this same time last year.

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
IEF	iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF	1,844.71	16,169.06	11.41%
BIL	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF	1,313.15	9,236.19	14.22%
ITE	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays Intermediate Term Treasury ETF	933.45	1,662.54	56.15%
SHV	iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF	916.70	21,236.80	4.32%
SHY	iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF	768.81	20,853.33	3.69%
VOO	Vanguard S&P 500 ETF	763.97	109,805.45	0.70%
GLD	SPDR Gold Trust	693.95	32,506.19	2.13%
AGG	iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF	650.07	62,635.31	1.04%
SPTL	SPDR Portfolio Long Term Treasury ETF	606.33	2,525.62	24.01%
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	604.32	174,664.53	0.35%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
QQQ	Invesco QQQ Trust	-735.93	67,809.84	-1.09%
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	-678.22	255,862.67	-0.27%
EWJ	iShares MSCI Japan ETF	-579.00	12,308.88	-4.70%
BKLN	Invesco Senior Loan ETF	-557.25	4,109.48	-13.56%
XLF	Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund	-474.49	23,484.67	-2.02%
MDY	SPDR S&P Midcap 400 ETF Trust	-423.87	18,700.95	-2.27%
JNK	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF	-380.77	7,855.52	-4.85%
XLK	Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund	-359.71	20,241.25	-1.78%
EZU	iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF	-345.32	6,044.32	-5.71%
VTI	Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF	-343.43	111,230.84	-0.31%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	-744.67	2,148,428.78	-0.03%
International Equity	-2,302.19	801,791.54	-0.29%
U.S. Fixed Income	10,446.68	663,892.59	1.57%
International Fixed Income	548.54	74,332.50	0.74%
Commodities	814.04	62,920.14	1.29%
Currency	22.15	1,533.08	1.45%
Leveraged	-202.30	35,168.97	-0.58%
Inverse	93.20	12,462.79	0.75%
Asset Allocation	-110.50	9,343.00	-1.18%
Alternatives	18.85	4,572.86	0.41%
Total:	8,583.82	3,814,446.26	0.23%

Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	13,734.21	2,148,428.78	0.64%
International Equity	6,022.14	801,791.54	0.75%
U.S. Fixed Income	50,719.45	663,892.59	7.64%
International Fixed Income	6,202.90	74,332.50	8.34%
Commodities	-2,101.30	62,920.14	-3.34%
Currency	-258.50	1,533.08	-16.86%
Leveraged	-1,977.74	35,168.97	-5.62%
Inverse	2,841.48	12,462.79	22.80%
Asset Allocation	-603.80	9,343.00	-6.46%
Alternatives	588.87	4,572.86	12.88%
Total:	75,167.70	3,814,446.26	1.97%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Ticker	Name	Average Volume (30 Day)	1 Week Average Volume	% of Average
DBEM	Xtrackers MSCI Emerging Markets Hedged Equity ETF	28,118	122,329	435.06%
HEEM	iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Emerging Markets ETF	114,143	475,474	416.56%
XTL	SPDR S&P Telecom ETF	19,349	84,463	436.52%
IQIN	IQ 500 International ETF	100,403	289,909	288.75%
SPTS	SPDR Portfolio Short Term Treasury ETF	579,053	1,854,220	320.22%
YLD	Principal Active Income ETF	2,387	6,115	256.22%
HAP	VanEck Vectors Natural Resources ETF	6,599	17,771	269.31%
DALI	First Trust Dorsey Wright DALI 1 ETF	13,233	25,236	190.71%
SHV	iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF	1,953,799	5,879,113	300.91%
SPIB	SPDR Portfolio Intermediate Term Corporate Bond ETF	1,276,349	3,679,869	288.31%

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 Plow Into Treasury ETFs This Week

Investors Plow Into Treasury ETFs This Week

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