'IEFA' Hot, 'EMB' Not, In Latest Weekly ETF Flows

Inflows into ETFs continued at a slow pace for a third-straight week, according to the latest data from FactSet. U.S.-listed ETFs gathered $2.5 billion in new money in the week ending Thursday, July 6, after seeing inflows of $3.6 billion and $1.4 billion in the previous two weeks, respectively. 

Total assets under management are hovering just below the $3 trillion mark, and year-to-date inflows now stand at $251.6 billion.

In terms of asset classes, the familiar pattern of U.S. equity outflows and international equity inflows showed up again. The former had net redemptions of $1.7 billion, while the latter had net creations of $3.2 billion during the week. 

A big sell-off in the S&P 500 on Thursday briefly pushed the U.S. stock market index to a six-week low. A spike in interest rates around the world prompted the sell-off, with the 10-year Treasury yield hitting a two-month high around 2.4%. 

But the spike in yields and sell-off in bond prices (bond prices and yields move inversely) didn't dissuade investors from putting more money into U.S. fixed-income ETFs. That segment saw inflows of $2.7 billion during the week.

International fixed-income ETFs weren't so fortunate; they had outflows of $929 million during the period. Commodity ETFs were another area to see net outflows, to the tune of $802 million.

IVV & IEFA Remain Hot
Topping the weekly inflows list was the familiar iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA), with creations of $1.6 billion. Year-to-date, the ETF now has seen $11.3 billion of fresh money come into it, which ranks it at No. 2 for 2017 as a whole. 

The only ETF with a higher year-to-date rank is the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV). Its weekly creations of $658 million pushed total 2017 inflows for the fund to a whopping $17.6 billion. IVV is, of course, now the second-largest ETF in the world, with $116.5 billion in assets under management.

A few other notable equity ETFs to make the cut this week were the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF), with creations of $1 billion; the VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH), with creations of $357 million; and the Schwab International Equity ETF (SCHF), with creations of $302 million.

On the fixed-income side, ETFs such as the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG), the iShares $ iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) and the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) were the biggest winners of the week. 

Investors Dump EM Bond ETF
At the other end of the spectrum, the most noticeable outflows came from the iShares JPMorgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF (EMB), with weekly redemptions of $1 billion, representing a decline in AUM of 7.8%.

The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), with its outflows of $518 million and the United States Oil Fund (USO), with its outflows of $319 million, were also salient on the list. 

For a full list of this week's top inflows and outflows, see the tables below:

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 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.