Massive $34B Pours Into ETFs As Stocks Hit Record Highs

Senior ETF Analyst

Sep 21, 2018

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

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.

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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Massive $34B Pours Into ETFs As Stocks Hit Record Highs

Massive $34B Pours Into ETFs As Stocks Hit Record Highs

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