Weekly Flows Positive Despite Worst Stock Market Drop Of Year

U.S.-listed ETFs continued to rake in money in the latest week, even as political uncertainty in Washington fueled the largest stock market decline of the year on Wednesday. According to FactSet, $2.9 billion flowed into ETFs on net during the week ending Thursday, May 18. But once again, it was international equity ETFs that pulled in the money at the same time U.S. equity ETFs shed assets. 

That's the third-straight week it's happened. This time, international equity ETFs had inflows of $5.9 billion, while U.S. equity ETFs had outflows of $6.8 billion. The U.S. stock market was roiled on Wednesday amid allegations about President Trump's conversations with ex-FBI director James Comey. The S&P 500 dropped 1.8%, but recovered a big chunk of those losses by Friday. 

International equities weren't immune from the selling, but sentiment on overseas economies has been improving for some time. The exception is Brazil; that market saw its worst decline since 2008 on Thursday after it emerged that there may be recordings of its president attempting to silence a witness in an ongoing corruption probe. 

Bonds were a big beneficiary of this week's stock market volatility. The U.S. 10-year yield fell from 2.32% to 2.23% (bond prices and yields move inversely). U.S. fixed-income ETFs had inflows of $3.1 billion during the period, while international fixed-income ETFs had inflows of $823 million. On the other hand, commodities had outflows of $124 million.

EFA & LQD Lead Inflows
The majority of the individual ETFs to see the largest inflows were international equity funds. That includes the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA), with creations of $1.3 billion; and the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG), with creations of $660 million.

Two fixed-income products also made the top 10. The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) had inflows of $724 million and the iShares JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF (EMB) had inflows of $343 million.

The only U.S. equity fund to make the cut was the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), with its $356 million inflow. On a percentage basis, the biggest winner on the list was the ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (SVXY), with inflows of $778 million, or 72% of its assets under management.

In contrast, on the outflows side, U.S. equity ETFs were everywhere. From the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), with outflows of $2.4 billion, to the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF), with outflows of $926 million, to the iShares Select Dividend ETF (DVY), with outflows of $227 million―every single ETF on the top 10 outflows list holds U.S. equities.

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

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.