Credit: Shutterstock photoInvestors plowed more than $6 billion into exchange-traded funds in the past week, though the market's quick pullback in the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election offset those flows and pulled total U.S.-listed ETFs down 1.4 percent to less than $1.279 trillion.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.2 percent in the five-day trading period ended Thursday, Nov. 8, as markets quickly moved past uncertainty surrounding the election and began fretting about the prospect of the U.S. Congress failing to properly address the so-called fiscal cliff by the end of the year. The concern is that Bush and Obama tax cuts won't be extended, which could quickly jeopardize the fragile U.S. and global economic recovery.
Inflows into ETFs were rather broad, with U.S. equities hauling in $2.13 billion; international equities attracting nearly $2 billion; fixed income pulling in upward of $1.5 billion; and commodities adding $323 million, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.
The powerful flows-even at a time of heightened uncertainty-continued to paint the picture of an ETF asset-gathering juggernaut that's still building momentum.
Just three weeks ago, before markets again became spooked, ETF assets stood at a record of $1.318 trillion-a noteworthy milestone considering it came in a year when ETF launches have slowed and ETF closures have accelerated relative to years past.
EEM Inflows Continue
The most popular ETF in the weekly survey was the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca:EEM), which pulled in more than $900 million-including more than $800 million in yesterday's session alone.
EEM has been seeing some positive inflows since Vanguard Group announced about a month ago that, next year, EEM's rival fund, the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca:VWO), would no longer use the same MSCI index as EEM, but one from FTSE.
Some ETF industry sources have argued that the positive flows for EEM relative to VWO-essentially a reversal of a broad pattern of the past few years-might be related to the fact that institutions still largely favor MSCI benchmarks, which would mean that VWO could be falling out of favor among such large investors, no matter how smoothly it trades.
Those flows into EEM, by and large, haven't been accompanied by flows out of VWO, though yesterday the Vanguard fund did record redemptions of more than $200 million-again on a day when EEM pulled in more than $800 million.
The least popular ETF in the weekly survey was the iShares MSCI Russell 2000 Index Fund (NYSEArca:IWM), which suffered outflows of $789.3 million.
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
ETF Weekly Daily Flows By Asset Class
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds 'gt;$50 mm AUM
Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and 'lt;1,000 Shares Traded
Top 10 YTD Performers
Bottom 10 YTD Performers
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.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
