Massive Weekly Outflows For SPY & HYG

Investors aggressively pulled money out of U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds this week as concerns about the economy and corporate earnings pushed stock markets down to their lowest levels in a month. The S&P 500 briefly fell into the red for the year on Friday.

Net outflows from U.S.-listed ETFs totaled $11.6 billion in the week ending Thursday, May 5, according to FactSet data. The bulk of that money, $11.4 billion, came out of U.S. equity ETFs. But international equity ETFs and U.S. fixed-income ETFs were losers as well, with outflows of $1.2 billion and $589 million, repsectively.

Gold And Bond Inflows

On the other hand, commodity ETFs saw a net inflow of $1.6 billion, largely due to one fund. The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100) had an inflow of $1.1 billion as investors rushed into the safe-haven yellow metal. The competing iShares Gold Trust (IAU | B-100) also made the top 10 inflows list, with creations of $325 million.

Behind GLD were three safe, investment-grade bond products, which had big inflows of their own as investor fear levels grew. The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD | A-77) had inflows of $753 million; the iShares TIPS Bond ETF (TIP | A-99) had inflows of $539 million; and the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG | A-98) had inflows of $476 million.

Massive Outflows From Three ETFs

Meanwhile, as is often the case in a week of big outflows, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY | A-97) led the pack in terms of redemptions. Outflows from the world's largest ETF totaled a whopping $6.7 billion.

That was followed by the PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ | A-66), with outflows of $2.4 billion, and the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG | B-68), with outflows of $2.2 billion.

HYG's huge outflows suggest investors may be cashing in on their junk bond gains after the big rally in the past 2 1/2 months.

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Disclaimer: All data is from FactSet, 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.