Weekly Flows Pick Up Evenly Across Equity & Bond ETFs

Inflows into exchange-traded funds picked up this week despite concerns about economic growth and surprisingly low interest rates around the world. Sovereign bond yields in many countries hit new lows for the year, or even all-time lows; the German 10-year bond yield, for example, fell close to zero and looked poised to go negative amid ongoing purchases by the European Central Bank.

In the week ending Thursday, June 9, inflows into U.S.-listed ETFs totaled a healthy $9 billion, according to FactSet data. Moreover, that money was split evenly between U.S. equity, international equity and U.S.-fixed income products. Each of those segments had more than $2.3 billion of inflows in the period.

Emerging Market ETF Tops Inflows
Taking the No. 1 position on the individual ETF leaderboard was the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG | A-98), with inflows of $1 billion. Though off their very lows from earlier this year, many investors still see value in EM stocks, which had sold off hard during the last few years. 

Following closely behind IEMG was the junk bond fund, the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG | B-68), which had about $990 million in inflows. Oil prices briefly topped $51 earlieR this week before backing down. Higher oil prices put energy companies—many of which are junk bond issuers—on stronger financial footing.

Another notable fund on the top 10 inflows list is the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100), which garnered $500 million in inflows in the week. The fund now has year-to-date inflows totaling a whopping $9.7 billion.

Currency Hedging ETFs Out Of Favor
Meanwhile, topping the outflows list was the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI | A-100), with outflows of $561 million. That was followed by the iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF | A-55), with $497 million in outflows.

Other losers included a pair of currency-hedged products: the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DXJ | B-63) and the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (HEDJ | B-47), which had outflows of $482 million and $328 million, respectively. 

On a percentage basis, the biggest loser on the bottom 10 list this week was the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bull 3x Shares (NUGT), which had outflows of $273 million, or 15.2% of its assets under management. 

For a complete list of 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.