Junk Bond & Emerging Market ETFs See Mega Inflows
Hundreds of millions of dollars flow into these two segments in the week ending Thursday, Oct. 22.
Hundreds of millions of dollar continued to flow into U.S. corporate bond ETFs this week, as investors speculated that interest rates would stay lower for longer. Three products in particular remain extremely popular: the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD | A-77), the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG | B-64) and the SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK | B-68).
The three ETFs gathered a combined $2.1 billion in assets this week alone. For the month as a whole, the trio has gained a whopping $6 billion in assets. These are no small funds by any means, but even for their size, these are hefty inflows.
In addition to expectations that the Fed may not hike interest rates this year, investors are also betting that the fears about an economic slowdown and the potential for widespread corporate defaults that were prevelent in August and September were overblown.
At one point in September, junk bond yields touched their highest levels since 2011, a time when the the eurozone sovereign debt crisis was raging. Clearly, those high yields were attractive to many ETF investors.
Outside the corporate bond space, another area that had significant inflows this week was emerging markets. The iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG | A-99) and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM | B-100) gathered a combined $1 billion in assets.
As with junk bonds, investors may believe that the worst for emerging markets is in the rearview mirror and that all the bad news is already priced in.
Altogether, U.S. ETFs had $6.8 billion in inflows in the week ending Thursday, Oct. 22, putting total assets at $2.1 trillion
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
LQD | iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond | 898.74 | 24,583.13 | 3.79% |
HYG | iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond | 730.65 | 14,691.31 | 5.23% |
MDY | SPDR S&P MidCap 400 | 599.85 | 15,145.95 | 4.12% |
IEMG | iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets | 517.86 | 8,512.02 | 6.48% |
EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | 513.61 | 23,669.64 | 2.22% |
EZU | iShares MSCI EMU | 502.92 | 13,100.56 | 3.99% |
BIV | Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond | 501.47 | 7,436.11 | 7.23% |
AGG | iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond | 460.65 | 27,733.71 | 1.69% |
SHY | iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond | 458.93 | 13,665.93 | 3.47% |
JNK | SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond | 445.04 | 11,285.24 | 4.11% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | -2,200.19 | 176,090.08 | -1.23% |
SHV | iShares Short Treasury Bond | -540.47 | 3,639.57 | -12.93% |
XLI | Industrial Select SPDR | -433.83 | 7,202.89 | -5.68% |
IEI | iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond | -411.38 | 5,687.69 | -6.74% |
DBEF | Deutsche X-trackers MSCI EAFE Hedged Equity ETF | -301.48 | 13,696.92 | -2.15% |
IEF | iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond | -248.27 | 9,666.90 | -2.50% |
IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | -235.79 | 26,686.04 | -0.88% |
GDX | Market Vectors Gold Miners | -201.45 | 4,955.18 | -3.91% |
IVV | iShares Core S&P 500 | -194.56 | 68,466.93 | -0.28% |
SMH | Market Vectors Semiconductor | -171.85 | 281.73 | -37.89% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
U.S. Equity | 1,492.73 | 1,145,836.80 | 0.13% |
International Equity | 1,738.19 | 489,504.66 | 0.36% |
U.S. Fixed Income | 3,344.04 | 332,036.28 | 1.01% |
International Fixed Income | 104.90 | 27,002.77 | 0.39% |
Commodities | 15.19 | 52,988.74 | 0.03% |
Currency | 7.58 | 1,346.93 | 0.56% |
Leveraged | 141.17 | 23,526.64 | 0.60% |
Inverse | -124.79 | 20,490.96 | -0.61% |
Asset Allocation | -6.24 | 5,484.00 | -0.11% |
Alternatives | 62.67 | 3,145.92 | 1.99% |
Total: | 6,775.45 | 2,101,363.70 | 0.32% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) | 1 Week Average Volume | % of Average |
DIVC | C-Tracks Miller/Howard Strategic Dividend Reinvestor ETN | 58,927 | 325,250 | 551.95% |
JPGE | JPMorgan Diversified Return Global Equity | 7,851 | 29,527 | 376.09% |
BSJJ | Guggenheim BulletShares 2019 High Yield Corporate Bond | 72,336 | 236,987 | 327.62% |
HYXU | iShares Global ex USD High Yield Corporate Bond | 46,586 | 140,634 | 301.88% |
RHS | Guggenheim S&P Equal Weight Consumer Staples | 92,116 | 272,915 | 296.27% |
PXE | PowerShares Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production | 29,612 | 86,865 | 293.34% |
TUZ | PIMCO 1-3 Year U.S. Treasury | 29,171 | 85,558 | 293.30% |
FDM | First Trust Dow Jones Select Micro Cap | 6,324 | 18,183 | 287.51% |
IBCD | iShares iBonds Mar 2020 Corporate ex-Financials | 1,592 | 4,537 | 284.96% |
LDUR | PIMCO Low Duration | 2,885 | 8,155 | 282.68% |
Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
HEWY | iShares Currency Hedged MSCI South Korea | 8.38% | 1,025 | 2.49 |
ROGS | Lattice Global Small Cap Strategy | 7.10% | 2,611 | 7.17 |
SLDR | ALPS Sector Leaders | 6.47% | 1,509 | 1.22 |
FIW | First Trust ISE Water | 5.52% | 154,010 | 111.25 |
HFEZ | SPDR EURO STOXX 50 Currency Hedged | 5.22% | 43,856 | 7.36 |
JDG | WisdomTree Japan Quality Dividend Growth | 4.92% | 1,924 | 2.31 |
DXJF | WisdomTree Japan Hedged Financials | 4.87% | 37,296 | 25.79 |
EMRE | Guggenheim Emerging Markets Real Estate | 4.80% | 2,464 | 2.19 |
XLRE | Real Estate Select Sector SPDR | 4.58% | 8,221 | 4.71 |
FKO | First Trust South Korea AlphaDex | 4.37% | 15,500 | 3.69 |
Bottom 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
VXUP | AccuShares Spot CBOE VIX Up Shares | -52.79% | 113,003 | 0.10 |
CVOL | C-Tracks Citi Volatility ETN | -12.12% | 864,375 | 2.97 |
JO | iPath Bloomberg Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN | -10.46% | 864,272 | 109.89 |
CAFE | iPath Pure Beta Coffee ETN | -10.34% | 22,025 | 5.11 |
CNCR | Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy | -9.14% | 457,520 | 10.53 |
XPH | SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals | -8.61% | 1,656,214 | 662.83 |
SGDJ | Sprott Junior Gold Miners | -7.77% | 33,328 | 26.11 |
GAZ | iPath Bloomberg Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN | -7.51% | 91,804 | 8.28 |
VIXY | ProShares VIX Short-Term | -7.39% | 10,756,391 | 88.48 |
VXX | iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN | -7.34% | 358,784,756 | 870.36 |
Top 10 YTD Performers
Ticker | Name | YTD Performance | Weekly Performance | AUM ($, mm) |
CNXT | Market Vectors ChinaAMC SME-ChiNext | 0.40 | -1.20 | 57.84 |
ASHS | Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 500 China-A Shares Small Cap ETF | 0.21 | -1.89 | 42.01 |
DXJH | WisdomTree Japan Hedged Health Care | 0.21 | 0.81 | 10.71 |
GRN | iPath Global Carbon ETN | 0.19 | 4.95 | 2.56 |
DFJ | WisdomTree Japan SmallCap Dividend | 0.17 | 1.35 | 341.21 |
RSX | Market Vectors Russia | 0.17 | -2.34 | 2,000.12 |
EIRL | iShares MSCI Ireland Capped | 0.17 | -0.68 | 165.82 |
FDN | First Trust Dow Jones Internet | 0.17 | -0.03 | 3,773.21 |
DXJF | WisdomTree Japan Hedged Financials | 0.16 | 3.20 | 25.79 |
DXJS | WisdomTree Japan Hedged SmallCap Equity | 0.16 | 1.97 | 190.40 |
Bottom 10 YTD Performers
Ticker | Name | YTD Performance | Weekly Performance | AUM ($, mm) |
CVOL | C-Tracks Citi Volatility ETN | -0.59 | -11.98 | 2.97 |
GAZ | iPath Bloomberg Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN | -0.58 | -5.81 | 8.28 |
XTN | SPDR S&P Transportation | -0.56 | 1.66 | 278.54 |
XHS | SPDR S&P Health Care Services | -0.52 | -7.84 | 178.00 |
XSW | SPDR S&P Software & Services | -0.48 | -0.43 | 52.39 |
XSD | SPDR S&P Semiconductor | -0.46 | 1.72 | 140.66 |
EWZS | iShares MSCI Brazil Small-Cap | -0.44 | 0.52 | 25.18 |
BRF | Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap | -0.44 | -0.42 | 69.88 |
BRXX | EGShares Brazil Infrastructure | -0.42 | -1.80 | 9.00 |
VIIX | VelocityShares VIX Short Term ETN | -0.42 | -6.13 | 7.40 |
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.