The Year’s ETF Inflows Near $80B
A midweek sell-off in U.S. stocks didn’t stop investors from putting more money to work in U.S.-listed ETFs.
A brief sell-off midweek for stocks didn’t dampen investors’ appetite for ETFs. All told, investors added a solid $4.4 billion to U.S.-listed ETFs during the week ending Thursday, May 2, pushing year-to-date inflows to $79.4 billion—a bit below the $90.4 billion at the same time last year.
On an asset class basis, the bulk of this week’s money flowed into U.S. equity ETFs, which picked up $4.8 billion in fresh cash. That was followed by inflows of $841 million for international equity ETFs and $359 million for international fixed income ETFs.
On the other hand, U.S. fixed income ETFs registered a rare outflow of $1.4 billion as the Fed dampened hopes of an imminent rate cut at its meeting on Wednesday.
Individual ETF flows winners this week included the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), the First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX Fund (FXU) and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI).
Conversely, the iShares TIPS Bond ETF (TIP), the iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) and the First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX Fund (FXH) saw the largest outflows of the week.
For a full list of this week’s biggest inflows and outflows, see the tables below:
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | 2,684.37 | 280,187.08 | 0.96% |
| FXU | First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX Fund | 683.62 | 1,238.24 | 55.21% |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 524.83 | 114,608.48 | 0.46% |
| DIA | SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust | 478.20 | 22,244.09 | 2.15% |
| IJR | iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF | 421.32 | 44,605.85 | 0.94% |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 407.22 | 112,744.55 | 0.36% |
| IEFA | iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF | 397.76 | 64,336.94 | 0.62% |
| XLY | Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund | 359.28 | 13,786.58 | 2.61% |
| VB | Vanguard Small-Cap ETF | 280.39 | 25,344.60 | 1.11% |
| USMV | iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol U.S.A. ETF | 274.50 | 25,535.47 | 1.07% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| TIP | iShares TIPS Bond ETF | -781.70 | 20,045.84 | -3.90% |
| LQD | iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF | -725.71 | 31,960.93 | -2.27% |
| FXH | First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX Fund | -624.26 | 1,258.08 | -49.62% |
| XLE | Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund | -604.24 | 12,932.13 | -4.67% |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 ETF | -564.89 | 42,616.00 | -1.33% |
| TLT | iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF | -447.67 | 12,318.82 | -3.63% |
| VGT | Vanguard Information Technology ETF | -330.73 | 20,788.11 | -1.59% |
| IYR | iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF | -288.79 | 4,270.51 | -6.76% |
| MINT | PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active ETF | -270.22 | 11,705.16 | -2.31% |
| HYG | iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | -268.64 | 16,697.24 | -1.61% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 4,839.97 | 2,228,897.67 | 0.22% |
| International Equity | 840.75 | 841,072.12 | 0.10% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | -1,363.36 | 640,995.96 | -0.21% |
| International Fixed Income | 359.26 | 74,179.83 | 0.48% |
| Commodities | -245.65 | 62,113.67 | -0.40% |
| Currency | -7.18 | 1,474.46 | -0.49% |
| Leveraged | -82.27 | 38,897.52 | -0.21% |
| Inverse | -39.51 | 11,569.24 | -0.34% |
| Asset Allocation | 36.72 | 9,571.66 | 0.38% |
| Alternatives | 70.31 | 4,883.33 | 1.44% |
| Total: | 4,409.05 | 3,913,655.47 | 0.11% |
Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 28,158.89 | 2,228,897.67 | 1.26% |
| International Equity | 12,558.82 | 841,072.12 | 1.49% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 34,397.07 | 640,995.96 | 5.37% |
| International Fixed Income | 6,559.82 | 74,179.83 | 8.84% |
| Commodities | -2,079.95 | 62,113.67 | -3.35% |
| Currency | -312.48 | 1,474.46 | -21.19% |
| Leveraged | -1,835.74 | 38,897.52 | -4.72% |
| Inverse | 2,704.49 | 11,569.24 | 23.38% |
| Asset Allocation | -546.05 | 9,571.66 | -5.70% |
| Alternatives | -232.25 | 4,883.33 | -4.76% |
| Total: | 79,372.61 | 3,913,655.47 | 2.03% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) | 1 Week Average Volume | % of Average |
| QMOM | Alpha Architect U.S. Quantitative Momentum ETF | 9,861 | 54,116 | 548.81% |
| ISDX | Invesco RAFI Strategic Developed ex-US ETF | 82 | 401 | 488.62% |
| UCI | ETRACS UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index TR ETN | 16,838 | 84,016 | 498.98% |
| USMC | Principal U.S. Mega-Cap Multi-Factor Index ETF | 47,467 | 238,029 | 501.46% |
| USHY | iShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | 710,366 | 2,445,457 | 344.25% |
| IG | Principal Investment Grade Corporate Active ETF | 795 | 2,804 | 352.90% |
| IMOM | Alpha Architect International Quantitative Momentum ETF | 3,881 | 12,355 | 318.36% |
| RCD | Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary ETF | 6,166 | 19,790 | 320.95% |
| PDP | Invesco DWA Momentum ETF | 122,385 | 408,409 | 333.71% |
| QVAL | Alpha Architect U.S. Quantitative Value ETF | 7,960 | 20,334 | 255.45% |
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.
