Weekly Flows: ETF Assets Sink Amid Ugly Start To 2016

The worst start to the year for stocks on record sent ETF investors fleeing from some of the big-name products. Overall etf assets dipped $3.6 billion in the week ending Thursday, Jan. 7, led by a $5.8 billion outflow from U.S. equity ETFs.

The top outflow leaders were the usual suspects: the largest and most liquid ETFs. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY | A-98) led the pack with a $2.5 billion outflow. That was followed by other big-name products such as the PowerShares QQQ (QQQ | A-64) and the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM | A-93).

On the other hand, U.S. fixed-income ETFs had the biggest inflows of the week with $1.1 billion in total. The biggest winner in this segment was the iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (SHY | A-97), which gained $245 million.

However, garnering the largest inflows were two equity products: the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO | A-98) and the iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF (IYR | B-96).

Two other interesting ETFs to make the top 10 inflows list were the iShares Gold Trust (IAU | A-100) and the VelocityShares 3X Long Crude Oil ETN (UWTI). Gold had fantastic performance in the week ending Thursday, gaining 4.5%, while oil had a lousy week, falling 10% to a 12-year low.

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

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

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

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.