Junk Bond ETF Unlikely Inflow Leader

Senior ETF Analyst

Apr 09, 2021

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

Fresh on the heels of a record quarter for inflows, investors continued to add to their ETF holdings at the start of Q2. On net, $14.4 billion flowed into U.S.-listed ETFs during the week ending Thursday, April 8.

The week, which was only four days long due to the Good Friday holiday, was a solid one for all the major ETF categories. U.S. equity ETFs pulled in $6.6 billion; international equity ETFs took in $3.7 billion and U.S. fixed income ETFs had inflows of $3 billion.

Aggregate year-to-date ETF inflows now stand at $269 billion, well ahead of the $92.4 billion at this same time a year ago.

Broad Market Records

Stocks marched to fresh record highs during the week, with the S&P 500 crossing 4,100 for the first time. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) each had creations of more than $1 billion over the past four days.

Incidentally, those happen to be the top asset gatherers for the year as a whole, with 2021 inflows of $17.7 billion, $11 billion and $10.2 billion, respectively.

Bleeding Assets

Topping the inflows chart for the week was the iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG), with creations of $1.5 billion. Prices for the junk bond ETF were little changed week-over-week, but garnered some support from the pullback in Treasury yields (bond prices and yields move inversely).

Despite this week’s inflows, for the year as a whole, HYG has seen net outflows to the tune of $2.7 billion. However, that outflow is pretty modest in comparison to the $12.8 billion that’s come out of the iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) or the $8.1 billion that’s come out of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD).

Both of those ETFs continued to bleed assets this week, as investors shunned their relative safety in favor of riskier, higher-return categories like stock ETFs, or junk bond ETFs like the aforementioned HYG.

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
HYG	iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF	1,458.75	23,049.94	6.33%
IYR	iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF	1,246.67	6,064.09	20.56%
VOO	Vanguard S&P 500 ETF	1,100.47	212,259.88	0.52%
VTI	Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF	1,098.73	230,882.76	0.48%
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	1,097.20	270,151.71	0.41%
AGG	iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF	957.01	85,504.57	1.12%
QQQ	Invesco QQQ Trust	935.70	162,097.37	0.58%
XLC	Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund	663.46	13,976.70	4.75%
EMB	iShares JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF	565.29	18,383.05	3.08%
XLB	Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund	505.84	7,454.75	6.79%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	-3,893.42	354,261.17	-1.10%
LQD	iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF	-2,151.10	39,710.16	-5.42%
IWM	iShares Russell 2000 ETF	-1,535.63	67,861.99	-2.26%
MBB	iShares MBS ETF	-552.61	25,828.91	-2.14%
SHV	iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF	-461.94	15,418.51	-3.00%
XLF	Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund	-421.97	38,936.36	-1.08%
TQQQ	ProShares UltraPro QQQ	-393.17	11,912.95	-3.30%
GLD	SPDR Gold Trust	-356.77	57,332.44	-0.62%
USMV	iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF	-350.26	28,460.98	-1.23%
SMH	VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF	-304.45	5,361.07	-5.68%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	6,569.03	3,524,101.51	0.19%
International Equity	3,675.15	1,198,662.94	0.31%
U.S. Fixed Income	3,011.49	982,477.05	0.31%
International Fixed Income	1,346.51	131,563.67	1.02%
Commodities	-220.26	130,342.98	-0.17%
Currency	1.31	1,894.16	0.07%
Leveraged	-357.16	56,380.73	-0.63%
Inverse	175.67	11,230.49	1.56%
Asset Allocation	94.66	14,818.90	0.64%
Alternatives	60.21	5,896.88	1.02%
Total:	14,356.61	6,057,369.30	0.24%

Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	132,141.17	3,524,101.51	3.75%
International Equity	88,047.62	1,198,662.94	7.35%
U.S. Fixed Income	36,408.94	982,477.05	3.71%
International Fixed Income	11,258.20	131,563.67	8.56%
Commodities	-6,272.64	130,342.98	-4.81%
Currency	6.74	1,894.16	0.36%
Leveraged	3,048.00	56,380.73	5.41%
Inverse	2,033.78	11,230.49	18.11%
Asset Allocation	1,034.52	14,818.90	6.98%
Alternatives	1,301.53	5,896.88	22.07%
Total:	269,007.85	6,057,369.30	4.44%

Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded

Ticker	Name	Weekly Performance	Weekly Volume	AUM ($, mm)
FTXN	First Trust Nasdaq Oil & Gas ETF	5.12%	43,036	37.00
VPOP	Simplify Volt Pop Culture Disruption ETF	4.34%	10,420	1.20
JO	iPath Series B Bloomberg Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN	4.21%	268,622	90.19
GRN	iPath Series B Carbon ETN	3.50%	11,936	17.56
BAL	iPath Series B Bloomberg Cotton Subindex Total Return ETN	2.87%	12,027	12.82
VFIN	Simplify Volt Fintech Disruption ETF	2.77%	9,940	2.36
EPU	iShares MSCI Peru ETF	2.62%	71,997	165.96
CANE	Teucrium Sugar Fund	2.58%	394,381	14.28
KRBN	KraneShares Global Carbon ETF	2.34%	350,141	102.01
EPOL	iShares MSCI Poland ETF	2.08%	586,131	243.92

Top 10 YTD Performers

Ticker	Name	YTD Performance	Weekly Performance	AUM ($, mm)
BDRY	Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF	114.68%	-6.81%	46.47
CNBS	Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF	63.38%	-4.88%	145.31
BLOK	Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF	62.92%	-6.07%	1,304.92
MJ	ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF	55.54%	-4.58%	1,756.16
THCX	The Cannabis ETF	53.60%	-5.60%	165.06
POTX	Global X Cannabis ETF	53.33%	-5.71%	186.47
FCG	First Trust Natural Gas ETF	44.63%	1.33%	192.48
URNM	North Shore Global Uranium Mining ETF	44.48%	-3.14%	221.09
PXE	Invesco Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production ETF	44.28%	0.54%	70.23
PSCE	Invesco S&P SmallCap Energy ETF	41.98%	-0.31%	132.33

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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Junk Bond ETF Unlikely Inflow Leader

Junk Bond ETF Unlikely Inflow Leader

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