Massive $34B Pours Into ETFs As Stocks Hit Record Highs
Encouraged by a soaring stock market, investors added billions of dollars to U.S.-listed ETFs this week.
Investors poured a massive sum of money into ETFs this week as U.S. stocks raced to record highs. More than $34.3 billion entered U.S.-listed ETFs during the week ending Thursday, Sep. 20, according to FactSet, pushing year-to-date inflows to $214.9 billion. It was the largest weekly inflow since the middle of March.
The vast majority of this week’s new money—$31.2 billion—headed straight for low-cost U.S. equity ETFs.
That’s not surprising. The U.S. stock market remains the standout performer in the world, easily outperforming most international equity markets and other asset classes. The S&P 500 topped 2,940 this week, giving it a gain of more than 11% for the year.
Investors graced ETFs offering cheap, broad exposure to U.S. equities with their money. Nearly $8.7 billion flowed into the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY); $3.5 billion flowed into the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK); and $2.6 billion flowed into the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY).
Tech and consumer discretionary are the two top-performing stock market sectors of the year, with gains of nearly 20% each.
Vanguard funds also fared well this week. ETFs from that issuer with large inflows included the Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB), the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and the Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF (VO).
On the other hand, a plethora of iShares ETFs dominated the weekly outflows list. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM), the iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF (IWF) and the iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) each had weekly outflows of more than $650 million.
While attracting much smaller sums, ETF segments other than U.S. equities also had inflows. U.S. fixed-income ETFs had net inflows of $1.6 billion; international equity ETFs had inflows of $761 million; and international fixed-income ETFs had inflows of $364 million.
Treasury bond prices sagged this week as the U.S. 10-year yield increased from 2.99% to as much as 3.1%, nearly matching the seven-year high from May.
For a full list of this week’s top inflows and outflows, see the tables below:
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | 8,668.27 | 280,618.40 | 3.19% |
XLK | Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund | 3,445.20 | 26,496.07 | 14.95% |
XLY | Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund | 2,567.17 | 18,393.09 | 16.22% |
VB | Vanguard Small-Cap ETF | 2,478.65 | 27,665.69 | 9.84% |
VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 2,354.20 | 106,588.37 | 2.26% |
VO | Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF | 1,221.05 | 25,972.58 | 4.93% |
VBK | Vanguard Small-Cap Growth ETF | 1,033.50 | 10,016.28 | 11.51% |
SCHM | Schwab U.S. Mid-Cap ETF | 660.74 | 6,132.52 | 12.08% |
VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 654.67 | 106,877.75 | 0.62% |
RSP | Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF | 641.39 | 16,711.92 | 3.99% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
IWM | iShares Russell 2000 ETF | -737.77 | 46,804.61 | -1.55% |
IWF | iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF | -668.19 | 44,283.53 | -1.49% |
HYG | iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | -654.11 | 15,536.65 | -4.04% |
QQQ | Invesco QQQ Trust | -364.41 | 70,590.78 | -0.51% |
EWJ | iShares MSCI Japan ETF | -282.99 | 16,883.04 | -1.65% |
EFA | iShares MSCI EAFE ETF | -239.28 | 70,755.38 | -0.34% |
IJH | iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF | -185.30 | 50,623.45 | -0.36% |
IEF | iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF | -142.45 | 9,238.14 | -1.52% |
TIP | iShares TIPS Bond ETF | -133.01 | 23,989.66 | -0.55% |
IWO | iShares Russell 2000 Growth ETF | -131.61 | 11,026.83 | -1.18% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
U.S. Equity | 31,239.99 | 2,194,435.81 | 1.42% |
International Equity | 760.52 | 792,095.48 | 0.10% |
U.S. Fixed Income | 1,594.82 | 570,139.23 | 0.28% |
International Fixed Income | 363.87 | 64,412.26 | 0.56% |
Commodities | 80.44 | 59,271.13 | 0.14% |
Currency | 0.75 | 1,084.89 | 0.07% |
Leveraged | -115.97 | 37,795.48 | -0.31% |
Inverse | 146.10 | 12,740.18 | 1.15% |
Asset Allocation | 141.57 | 9,618.48 | 1.47% |
Alternatives | 125.51 | 4,750.35 | 2.64% |
Total: | 34,337.59 | 3,746,343.29 | 0.92% |
Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)
Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
U.S. Equity | 105,024.07 | 2,194,435.81 | 4.79% |
International Equity | 35,985.29 | 792,095.48 | 4.54% |
U.S. Fixed Income | 59,437.27 | 570,139.23 | 10.43% |
International Fixed Income | 8,872.65 | 64,412.26 | 13.77% |
Commodities | -1,711.61 | 59,271.13 | -2.89% |
Currency | -107.28 | 1,084.89 | -9.89% |
Leveraged | 3,724.87 | 37,795.48 | 9.86% |
Inverse | 2,280.25 | 12,740.18 | 17.90% |
Asset Allocation | 799.29 | 9,618.48 | 8.31% |
Alternatives | 625.43 | 4,750.35 | 13.17% |
Total: | 214,930.24 | 3,746,343.29 | 5.74% |
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.