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• Mid-Day ETF Report: ETFs, Stocks Continue Four-Week Positive Streak on Upbeat Economic Data
• Mid-Day ETF Update: Broad Market ETF's Flat to Slightly Firmer as Weak Data Curbs Enthusiasm
• Mid-Day ETF Update: Broad Market ETF's Gain on Optimism Over Economy, Financials Strong

• EEM 83% Rate It
• EFA 0% Rate It
• FAS 100% Rate It
• FXI 100% Rate It
• GLD 77% Rate It

Vanguard's MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca:VWO) hauled in more assets than any other U.S. ETF in April, narrowing the gap a bit more with its arch rival, the iShares MSCI Emerging Market Index Fund (NYSEArca:EEM), and bringing into focus the day VWO may surpass EEM, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.com.

State Street Global Advisors' SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEArca:GLD) gathered $1.10 billion in April, the second-most of any fund, benefiting from worries surrounding Greece. The world's biggest ETF, SSgA's S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca:SPY), remained on top in April, but lost $4.64 billion in investor assets, more than any other ETF, dropping its total to $74.44 billion. A slew of sector ETFs also suffered from investors cashing in their bets.

Last month's big flows story, Vanguard's VWO steadily catching up to iShares' EEM, is by now a familiar tale. VWO added $1.28 billion last month, lifting the total to $24.24 billion, while EEM grew by just $408.6 million to $35.75 billion. If year-to-date trends hold-VWO assets have grown 21 percent and EEM's have fallen 10 percent-VWO will easily surpass EEM in assets by the end of 2010.

Performance is clearly at play-VWO is 5 percent ahead of the theoretically equivalent EEM over the past 12 months-as is price, with VWO charging 0.27 percent vs. EEM's 0.72. However, EEM remains quite popular with traders, with $65.51 billion in turnover in April. EEM and VWO remained the fourth- and fifth-biggest U.S. ETFs, respectively, according to the report.

The third-most-popular ETF in terms of new money pouring in was the PowerShares QQQ (NYSEArca:QQQQ), which is focused on the 100 biggest nonfinancial U.S. stocks. It hauled in $1.07 billion in assets, raising its total to $22.42 billion. In the No. 4 spot was the ProShares UltraShort 20+ Treasury ETF (NYSEArca:TBT), which provides investors with double the inverse of daily returns. It gathered $875.7 million, and now has $5.12 billion.

Following in order after SPY, the list of sector ETFs that lost money in April included three other SSgA funds, including the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca:XLV), the Technology Sector Select SPDR (NYSEArca:XLK) and the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca:XLP). All lost less than $500 million.

Industry Giants

SSgA still had the two biggest ETFs in the U.S.:SPY, and GLD, its physical gold fund. GLD added $1.10 billion, bringing total assets to $43.93 billion at the end of the month. The third-biggest remains the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (NYSEArca:EFA), which is focused on developed markets outside the U.S. and Canada. EFA added $744.5 million, raising assets to $35.82 billion.

The iShares Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca:EEM) and Vanguard's VWO were, as mentioned above, the fourth- and fifth-biggest U.S. funds at the end of the month, respectively, according to IndexUniverse.com data.

The top three ETF firms remained BlackRock, which owns iShares; SSgA; and Vanguard. Of the three, only SSgA recorded outflows, which totaled $1.89 billion. BlackRock gathered $6.03 billion, bringing its total assets to $397.05 billion, while Vanguard added $3.43 billion, with its total money under management at $108.58 billion at the end of April.

Also notable among the ETF firms were Barclays Capital, which owns the iPath franchise of exchange-traded notes; and Charles Schwab, the discount broker that began launching its own line of ETFs in November.

Two iPath products, focused on VIX volatility futures, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term
Futures ETN (NYSEArca:VXZ) and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSEArca:VXX), pulled in $329.9 million and $358.5 million, respectively.

Schwab meanwhile attracted assets to virtually all of its new ETFs for a total of $228.7 million, with total assets now in excess of $1 billion after fewer than five months as a purveyor of ETFs.

Popular With Traders

SPY remained the most traded fund in April, with turnover of more than $500 billion last month. In the second and third spots were the iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (NYSEArca:IWM and QQQQ, which turned over $103.36 billion and $88.23 billion in April, respectively.

The turnover list also included a triple-exposure leveraged fund, the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3x (NYSEArca:FAS) in the No. 5 spot and the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 ETF (NYSEArca:FXI), in the No. 10 slot. The two funds had turnover of $63.9 billion and $25.7 billion, respectively.

Don't forget to check IndexUniverse.com's ETF Data section.

Copyright ® 2010 Index Publications LLC . All Rights Reserved.

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