Weekly Flows: US Bond Funds Rake In Assets, Growth ETFs Bleed

A look at weekly flows shows diverging trends among U.S. ETF investors.

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Reviewed by: Cinthia Murphy
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Edited by: Cinthia Murphy

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)

TickerNameNet Flows ($,mm)AUM ($, mm)AUM % Change
BSVVanguard Short-Term Bond Index Fund1,384.5621,036.707.05%
GOVTiShares Core U.S. Treasury Bond ETF910.643,617.0433.65%
VCITVanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund781.2911,403.157.36%
IEFAiShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF771.8218,092.784.46%
XLKTechnology Select Sector SPDR Fund701.4215,924.714.61%
MBBiShares MBS ETF626.929,844.096.80%
DIASPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust594.4516,572.343.72%
EWJiShares MSCI Japan ETF514.3716,423.153.23%
IEMGiShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF483.7020,568.422.41%
IWDiShares Russell 1000 Value ETF453.7935,500.281.29%

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

TickerNameNet Flows ($,mm)AUM ($, mm)AUM % Change
QQQPowerShares QQQ Trust-1,810.1842,546.02-4.08%
FLGECredit Suisse FI Large Cap Growth Enhanced ETN-1,484.79912.59-61.93%
VUGVanguard Growth Index Fund-865.3923,276.49-3.58%
IWMiShares Russell 2000 ETF-834.8437,950.54-2.15%
XLVHealth Care Select Sector SPDR Fund-638.8513,480.00-4.52%
GLDSPDR Gold Trust-347.1030,692.07-1.12%
IWFiShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF-342.9032,205.20-1.05%
SPYSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust-332.44225,974.31-0.15%
XLUUtilities Select Sector SPDR Fund-332.076,402.52-4.93%
ACWXiShares MSCI ACWI ex U.S. ETF-266.202,076.58-11.36%

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

 Net Flows ($, mm)AUM ($, mm)% of AUM
U.S. Equity-199.341,528,047.88-0.01%
International Equity3,726.09543,481.900.69%
U.S. Fixed Income6,732.23420,740.391.60%
International Fixed Income92.4640,827.690.23%
Commodities-441.8061,133.29-0.72%
Currency-25.913,097.86-0.84%
Leveraged-1,785.2225,023.27-7.13%
Inverse140.5317,244.030.81%
Asset Allocation-101.566,591.28-1.54%
Alternatives155.723,910.773.98%
Total:8,293.202,650,098.360.31%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

TickerNameAverage Volume
(30 Day)
1 Week Average
Volume
% of Average
LVLGuggenheim S&P Global Dividend Opportunities Index ETF58,390222,348380.79%
VAWVanguard Materials Index Fund187,443663,046353.73%
EXIiShares Global Industrials ETF22,68267,674298.36%
PHOPowerShares Water Resources Portfolio49,315109,306221.65%
AGGYWisdomTree Barclays US Aggregate Bond Enhanced Yield Fund21,75547,288217.37%
CGWGuggenheim S&P Global Water Index ETF73,733150,543204.17%
PZTPowerShares New York AMT-Free Municipal Bond Portfolio15,97628,301177.15%
SIVRETFS Physical Silver Shares175,857285,410162.30%
RFDIFirst Trust RiverFront Dynamic Developed International30,68641,559135.43%
IXNiShares Global Tech ETF65,14285,868131.82%

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.

 

Cinthia Murphy is head of digital experience, advocating for the user in all that etf.com does. She previously served as managing editor and writer for etf.com, specializing in ETF content and multimedia. Cinthia’s experience includes time at Dow Jones and former BridgeNews, covering commodity futures markets in Chicago and Brazil equities in Sao Paulo. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

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