The speed at which the U.S. stock market is rising has some investors feeling dizzy. With three trading sessions left in the first month of the year, the S&P 500 is already up more than 7%.
To see why that is, look no further than what is going on in the world of ETFs. This week, investors bought up $16.6 billion worth of U.S.-listed ETFs, bringing the haul for 2018 as a whole to $50.6 billion.
Of this week's inflows, $8 billion went into U.S. equity ETFs, according to FactSet. The data, which covers the week ending Thursday, Jan. 25, also showed that $5.4 billion raced into international equity ETFs. International stocks are on a streak of 10-straight weeks of gains, the longest run of that kind since 1999.
SPY Eclipses $300B
The ETF to benefit the most from investors "partying like it's 1999" is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY). The world's largest ETF took in $6.2 billion this week, bringing its total assets under management to a whopping $302.3 billion, a new record.
Other low-cost, broad market ETFs like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) also took in sizable amounts of money this week, but nowhere near SPY's take.
One sector ETF, the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU), pulled in a cool $566 million this week even as utility stocks struggled due to rising interest rates.
Bond ETFs Sold
On the outflows side, bond ETFs fared the worst, as bond prices fell and yields ticked up. The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD), the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) and the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) all made an appearance on the outflows list.
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 | 6,210.59 | 302,321.08 | 2.10% |
| QQQ | PowerShares QQQ Trust | 847.40 | 63,807.90 | 1.35% |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 799.51 | 90,719.34 | 0.89% |
| VWO | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF | 684.50 | 73,613.58 | 0.94% |
| XLU | Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund | 565.94 | 7,653.10 | 7.99% |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 ETF | 531.33 | 44,548.33 | 1.21% |
| IEFA | iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF | 418.59 | 46,759.93 | 0.90% |
| DIA | SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust | 403.98 | 25,300.93 | 1.62% |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF | 386.39 | 44,409.51 | 0.88% |
| EWJ | iShares MSCI Japan ETF | 380.75 | 22,593.25 | 1.71% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| LQD | iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF | -612.25 | 36,628.79 | -1.64% |
| HYG | iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | -542.29 | 16,382.03 | -3.20% |
| XLY | Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund | -522.78 | 13,643.58 | -3.69% |
| XLF | Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund | -448.90 | 34,500.58 | -1.28% |
| XLV | Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund | -406.35 | 17,292.62 | -2.30% |
| IWF | iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF | -352.66 | 42,221.93 | -0.83% |
| XLI | Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund | -326.41 | 15,404.73 | -2.07% |
| AGG | iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF | -259.58 | 53,155.97 | -0.49% |
| VNQ | Vanguard REIT ETF | -253.87 | 33,095.28 | -0.76% |
| IWD | iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF | -240.23 | 40,444.84 | -0.59% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 7,982.60 | 2,052,337.84 | 0.39% |
| International Equity | 5,389.95 | 876,459.50 | 0.61% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 559.30 | 523,886.87 | 0.11% |
| International Fixed Income | 951.75 | 63,194.93 | 1.51% |
| Commodities | 865.86 | 70,708.65 | 1.22% |
| Currency | 72.03 | 1,311.78 | 5.49% |
| Leveraged | 153.84 | 38,183.04 | 0.40% |
| Inverse | 564.62 | 15,782.92 | 3.58% |
| Asset Allocation | 13.67 | 9,271.72 | 0.15% |
| Alternatives | 39.15 | 4,580.78 | 0.85% |
| Total: | 16,592.76 | 3,655,718.02 | 0.45% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) |
1 Week Average Volume |
% of Average |
| MFEM | PIMCO RAFI Dynamic Multi-Factor Emerging Markets Equity ETF | 15,198 | 44,921 | 295.58% |
| ZMLP | Direxion Zacks MLP High Income Index Shares | 52,050 | 152,143 | 292.30% |
| PPH | VanEck Vectors Pharmaceutical ETF | 71,790 | 160,594 | 223.70% |
| SPIB | SPDR Portfolio Intermediate Term Corporate Bond ETF | 1,033,304 | 2,372,735 | 229.63% |
| XRLV | PowerShares S&P 500 ex-Rate Sensitive Low Volatility Portfolio | 38,781 | 83,844 | 216.20% |
| UITB | USAA Core Intermediate-Term Bond ETF | 15,877 | 28,926 | 182.19% |
| IXN | iShares Global Tech ETF | 62,125 | 137,774 | 221.77% |
| IVLU | iShares Edge MSCI Intl Value Factor ETF | 26,221 | 66,324 | 252.94% |
| DBAW | Xtrackers MSCI All World ex U.S. Hedged Equity ETF | 18,368 | 30,716 | 167.22% |
| KBA | KraneShares Bosera MSCI China A Share ETF | 57,653 | 125,994 | 218.54% |
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.
