Junk Bond ETF Unlikely Inflow Leader
'HYG' comes back from the falling demand in a big way as overall demand continues.
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.