Strong Earnings Fuel Strong Weekly ETF Flows

Sumit Roy

Senior ETF Analyst

Apr 20, 2018

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

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A strong start to the corporate earnings season led the U.S. stock market to a one-month high this week. The S&P 500 briefly touched 2,717 on Wednesday before slipping back below 2,700 on Thursday. Still, sentiment is decidedly more positive than it was only a few weeks ago, when trade war fears were front and center.

The positive momentum in the stock market inspired investors to plow a solid chunk of change into U.S. equity ETFs—$11 billion in total, including $6.8 billion into U.S. equity ETFs and $1.1 billion into international equity ETFs during the week ending Thursday, April 19.

Year-to-date inflows now stand at $82.1 billion.

A late-week sell-off in bonds spooked investors a bit. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield jumped to as much as 2.95%, the loftiest level in four years. Even so, U.S. fixed-income ETFs managed to pull in $2.2 billion in new money.

The most interesting name on this week’s top inflows list is the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX), with creations of $354 million. The VIX hit its lowest level in over a month on Tuesday, at 14.57, which may have prompted some speculators to bet on a rebound.

On the outflows side, the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) and the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) were two of the biggest flows losers, with redemptions of around $400 million each. Both ETFs rallied significantly in the past few weeks, so some investors may have used that as an opportunity to take profits.

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
QQQ	PowerShares QQQ Trust	1,263.63	63,449.47	2.03%
IWM	iShares Russell 2000 ETF	1,149.95	44,455.37	2.66%
IEMG	iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF	799.10	51,312.28	1.58%
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	708.46	259,841.48	0.27%
AGG	iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF	608.04	55,410.09	1.11%
JNK	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF	540.55	9,711.62	5.89%
IVE	iShares S&P 500 Value ETF	500.36	15,487.67	3.34%
XLI	Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund	493.55	13,794.96	3.71%
SHV	iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF	474.19	13,355.33	3.68%
VXX	iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN	353.93	972.89	57.18%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($,mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
LQD	iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF	-757.96	32,168.81	-2.30%
MTUM	iShares Edge MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF	-422.63	7,816.28	-5.13%
XLE	Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund	-418.05	18,595.45	-2.20%
GDX	VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF	-371.93	8,351.66	-4.26%
XLU	Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund	-278.06	6,816.61	-3.92%
XLF	Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund	-277.08	32,014.27	-0.86%
IWD	iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF	-237.74	36,881.92	-0.64%
CIU	iShares Intermediate Credit Bond ETF	-213.50	6,833.49	-3.03%
BIL	SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF	-178.42	3,384.65	-5.01%
XLP	Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund	-175.46	7,534.92	-2.28%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
U.S. Equity	6,791.91	1,947,585.47	0.35%
International Equity	1,132.03	856,088.16	0.13%
U.S. Fixed Income	2,245.49	534,635.31	0.42%
International Fixed Income	457.72	64,546.25	0.71%
Commodities	85.64	71,990.33	0.12%
Currency	0.00	1,428.34	0.00%
Leveraged	-413.64	37,155.50	-1.11%
Inverse	304.79	13,379.80	2.28%
Asset Allocation	11.03	9,236.03	0.12%
Alternatives	380.52	4,467.04	8.52%
Total:	10,995.50	3,540,512.24	0.31%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Ticker	Name	Average Volume (30 Day)	1 Week Average Volume	% of Average
JKL	iShares Morningstar Small Cap Value ETF	7,475	18,184	243.27%
DIVC	C-Tracks ETN - Miller/Howard Strategic Dividend Reinvestor	29	143	483.90%
SMB	VanEck Vectors AMT-Free Short Municipal Index ETF	66,694	140,828	211.15%
SLVP	iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners ETF	50,522	117,628	232.82%
MXDU	Nationwide Maximum Diversification U.S. Core Equity ETF	988	1,450	146.76%
FYT	First Trust Small Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund	20,238	34,606	171.00%
CUT	PowerShares MSCI Global Timber Portfolio	26,606	56,126	210.95%
FNDB	Schwab Fundamental US Broad Market Index ETF	24,095	59,592	247.32%
JPMB	JPMorgan USD Emerging Markets Sovereign Bond ETF	281	374	133.07%
STOT	SPDR DoubleLine Short Duration Total Return Tactical	5,724	8,176	142.83%

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

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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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