Weekly Flows: US Bond Funds Rake In Assets, Growth ETFs Bleed
A look at weekly flows shows diverging trends among U.S. ETF investors.
U.S.-listed ETFs attracted nearly $9 billion in fresh net inflows in the week ended Jan. 26—a healthy intake for a market that keeps on growing.
US Fixed Income Dominates Creations
Interesting this week is the fact that two-thirds of net creations landed in U.S. fixed-income ETFs. Everyone is talking about the end of the 30-year bond bull market, and bearish outlook for U.S. Treasurys in the face of expectations for several interest rate hikes in the next few years, but it was U.S. bond funds that raked in the most assets.
The most popular ETF in the week was the Vanguard Short-Term Bond Index Fund (BSV), with net inflows of more than $1.3 billion. The No. 2 ETF in terms of creations was the iShares Core U.S. Treasury Bond ETF (GOVT)—a fund that saw its asset base surge 33% in the past five days. In all, U.S. fixed-income ETFs attracted more than $6.7 billion in net new assets.
US Equity And Growth Stocks Bleed
On the flip side, U.S. equity ETFs were net losers in the past week, bleeding some $200 million in outflows.
The least popular segment of the ETF market was leveraged funds. As a category, these ETFs bled more than $1.7 billion in assets last week, led by outflows of $1.4 billion from the Credit Suisse FI Large Cap Growth Enhanced ETN (FLGE). FLGE offers 2X leveraged exposure to an index of U.S. large-cap growth stocks. The net redemptions seen in the past five days amounted to an AUM loss of more than 61% for the fund.
FLGE wasn’t the only growth equity ETF in the line of fire—most expect 2017 to be a good year for value stocks rather than growth. The massive Vanguard Growth Index Fund (VUG) was also among the week’s biggest redemptions, with net asset outflows of $865 million.
In all, the ETF market in the U.S. ended the week with $2.65 trillion in assets.
The tables below show what was popular, what wasn’t, and the asset class breakdown of asset flows for the week ended Jan. 26:
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
BSV | Vanguard Short-Term Bond Index Fund | 1,384.56 | 21,036.70 | 7.05% |
GOVT | iShares Core U.S. Treasury Bond ETF | 910.64 | 3,617.04 | 33.65% |
VCIT | Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund | 781.29 | 11,403.15 | 7.36% |
IEFA | iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF | 771.82 | 18,092.78 | 4.46% |
XLK | Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund | 701.42 | 15,924.71 | 4.61% |
MBB | iShares MBS ETF | 626.92 | 9,844.09 | 6.80% |
DIA | SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust | 594.45 | 16,572.34 | 3.72% |
EWJ | iShares MSCI Japan ETF | 514.37 | 16,423.15 | 3.23% |
IEMG | iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF | 483.70 | 20,568.42 | 2.41% |
IWD | iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF | 453.79 | 35,500.28 | 1.29% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
QQQ | PowerShares QQQ Trust | -1,810.18 | 42,546.02 | -4.08% |
FLGE | Credit Suisse FI Large Cap Growth Enhanced ETN | -1,484.79 | 912.59 | -61.93% |
VUG | Vanguard Growth Index Fund | -865.39 | 23,276.49 | -3.58% |
IWM | iShares Russell 2000 ETF | -834.84 | 37,950.54 | -2.15% |
XLV | Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund | -638.85 | 13,480.00 | -4.52% |
GLD | SPDR Gold Trust | -347.10 | 30,692.07 | -1.12% |
IWF | iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF | -342.90 | 32,205.20 | -1.05% |
SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | -332.44 | 225,974.31 | -0.15% |
XLU | Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund | -332.07 | 6,402.52 | -4.93% |
ACWX | iShares MSCI ACWI ex U.S. ETF | -266.20 | 2,076.58 | -11.36% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
U.S. Equity | -199.34 | 1,528,047.88 | -0.01% |
International Equity | 3,726.09 | 543,481.90 | 0.69% |
U.S. Fixed Income | 6,732.23 | 420,740.39 | 1.60% |
International Fixed Income | 92.46 | 40,827.69 | 0.23% |
Commodities | -441.80 | 61,133.29 | -0.72% |
Currency | -25.91 | 3,097.86 | -0.84% |
Leveraged | -1,785.22 | 25,023.27 | -7.13% |
Inverse | 140.53 | 17,244.03 | 0.81% |
Asset Allocation | -101.56 | 6,591.28 | -1.54% |
Alternatives | 155.72 | 3,910.77 | 3.98% |
Total: | 8,293.20 | 2,650,098.36 | 0.31% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) | 1 Week Average Volume | % of Average |
LVL | Guggenheim S&P Global Dividend Opportunities Index ETF | 58,390 | 222,348 | 380.79% |
VAW | Vanguard Materials Index Fund | 187,443 | 663,046 | 353.73% |
EXI | iShares Global Industrials ETF | 22,682 | 67,674 | 298.36% |
PHO | PowerShares Water Resources Portfolio | 49,315 | 109,306 | 221.65% |
AGGY | WisdomTree Barclays US Aggregate Bond Enhanced Yield Fund | 21,755 | 47,288 | 217.37% |
CGW | Guggenheim S&P Global Water Index ETF | 73,733 | 150,543 | 204.17% |
PZT | PowerShares New York AMT-Free Municipal Bond Portfolio | 15,976 | 28,301 | 177.15% |
SIVR | ETFS Physical Silver Shares | 175,857 | 285,410 | 162.30% |
RFDI | First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Developed International | 30,686 | 41,559 | 135.43% |
IXN | iShares Global Tech ETF | 65,142 | 85,868 | 131.82% |
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.