ETF Inflows Continue Amid S&P 500 Losing Streak

The relentless climb in U.S. stocks took a breather this week, but investors kept adding money to their ETF holdings. The weekly inflows were modest—$458 million into U.S. equity ETFs and $5.7 billion into U.S.-listed ETFs overall—but enough to push the year-to-date haul further over $600 billion.

On net, investors have added $607.7 billion to U.S.-listed ETFs since the start of the year.

Of this week’s inflows, the majority went into international equity ETFs—$2.5 billion. That was followed by the $2 billion that went into U.S. fixed income ETFs and the aforementioned $458 million into U.S. equity ETFs.

Selling Streak

U.S. stocks experienced a rare streak of selling over the past week. Stocks fell in four-straight sessions between last Friday and this Thursday. Markets were closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

As of this writing, Friday was shaping up to be a down day too, but even after multiple days in the red, the S&P 500 is only down 1% from its all-time high.

Overall sentiment remains optimistic despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and expectations that the Federal Reserve may begin tapering its bond buying program later this year.

Speaking of bonds, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield hovered in place over the past week and was last seen at 1.34%. That leaves it well off the 1.74% high from March and up modestly from the 1.17% low from August.

KWEB Adds To Haul

In terms of individual ETF flows, the iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF (IYR), the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) topped the weekly inflows list, with creations of $1 billion or more each.

The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) also made an appearance on the list, with inflows of $674 million. KWEB has been an absolute hit with bargain-hunting investors this year, raking in $6 billion in inflows since the start of the year.

Prices for the fund are another matter; year-to-date, the ETF is down almost 32% amid the crackdown on internet firms by the Chinese government.

Top Outflows

Meanwhile, on the outflows side of the ledger, the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) and the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) saw the largest redemptions during the week—$950 million or more.

The iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) was another loser, with outflows of almost $800 million. Though up from their lows of July, high yield bond spreads remain historically tight, with investors asking for relatively little yield in exchange for the risk of investing in lower quality corporate bonds.

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

Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)

Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded

Top 10 YTD Performers

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.