Investors Scoop Up 'SPY' & 'SHV' In Market Rout

Another volatile week in financial markets led to big action in exchange-traded fund flows. Billions flowed into and out of some of the most popular funds as stock markets plunged and then rebounded, while government bonds surged and then retreated.

For the week ending Friday, the S&P 500 was on track for a 0.6% gain (as of this writing) after briefly plunging to a 3.6% weekly loss on Wednesday. That day's 1,812 low was the lowest level for the index since February 2014.

US Equity ETFs Mixed

The following flows data covers the week ending Thursday, but it shows that investors used the dip in the market to buy aggressively into the S&P 500. The SPDR S&P 500 (SPY | A-98) saw inflows of $6.5 billion in the period.

However, on the whole, U.S. equity ETFs saw outflows of $222 million due to redemptions in funds like the iShares Russell 2000 (IWM | A-92) and the PowerShares QQQ (QQQ | A-65). The Russell 2000 briefly fell to its lowest level since June 2013 on Wednesday, down 26% from its all-time high.

EEM Sees Huge Outflows

In contrast to the massive inflows into SPY this week, an emerging markets fund, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM | B-100), was a big loser, with outflows of $1.1 billion.

Following closely behind on the outflows list was the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD | A-77), which lost $797 million.

Treasury ETFs Big Winners

While corporate bond ETFs hemorrhaged hundreds of millions of dollars this week, investors were enamored with Treasury ETFs. After SPY, the next three ETFs that garnered the largest inflows were all Treasury-related.

The iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF (SHV | A-97) gained $1.5 billion; the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT | A-83) added $629 million; and the iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF ( IEF | A-55) garnered $346 million.

In total, U.S. fixed-income ETFs had inflows of $2.5 billion, which helped offset the outflows from international equity ETFs such as EEM. Combining all segments, U.S.-listed ETFs in general saw a modest inflow of $247 million.

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

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.