Weekly ETF Flows: Huge Inflows Led By 'SPY' & 'XLE'

Shrugging off the first Fed rate hike in nearly a decade, and more volatility in the stock market, investors plowed a whopping $17.8 billion into U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds in the week ending Thursday, Dec. 17. Most of those inflows were focused on U.S. equity ETFs, a segment that had $15.4 billion in inflows.

The broad-based SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY | A-98) was the biggest beneficiary, with $6.2 billion in inflows. Following suit was the Energy Select SPDR (XLE | A-91), with an inflow of $1.3 billion, a gain of 12% in the fund's assets. Investors in XLE were likely bargain hunters eyeing value in the beaten-down ETF. On a price basis, XLE approached four-year lows this week, as energy prices tumbled. Oil hit the lowest levels since 2009, below $35/barrel, while natural gas prices hit the lowest levels since 1999, below $1.70/mmbtu.

Other big asset gainers this week were the iShares MSCI EAFE (EFA | A-93), the Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF (VO | A-99) and the Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB | A-99).

On the other end of the spectrum was the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity ETF (HEDJ | B-49). Still the most popular ETF for the year as a whole, investors used this week to pare back their holdings. HEDJ had outflows of $843 million in the week ending Thursday.

Another popular currency-hedged ETF, the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity ETF (DXJ | B-74) had outflows to the tune of $472 million.

Meanwhile, junk bond ETFs remained strongly out of favor this week, as prices for the two largest junk ETFs fell to levels not seen since the financial crisis. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG | B-68) had outflows of $625 million, while the SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK | B-68) had outflows of $229 million.

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.