Credit: Shutterstock photoInvestors poured more than $15 billion into U.S. equities ETFs in the past week, adding exposure to a stock market that has again climbed to new record highs amid renewed hopes that the Federal Reserve will remain very accommodative ahead.
The S&P 500 tagged on a modest 0.85 percent in gains in the five-day period ended Thursday, July 18, but not without ending Thursday's session at a new record-high closing of 1,689.37.
The largest ETF that tracks the broad U.S. stocks benchmark, the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEArca:SPY), was the week's most popular fund, raking in $7.48 billion in assets.
Now boasting total assets of $154.23 billion, SPY has seen net inflows of $13.66 billion since July 1 - a significant reversal from the $2.48 billion in net outflows the ETF saw in June when investors feared a sudden Fed exit.
IndexUniverse's tally of the top 10 ETF creations of the week is indeed a strong showing of investor appetite for U.S. equities exposure, which as an asset class, represented the bulk of ETF asset growth in the week. Total U.S.-listed ETF assets, including net inflows of more than $18.69 billion and market action, now total $1.532 trillion.
Of note, emerging market equities have been far from investor favorites in recent weeks due to concerns centered primarily on political instability in various countries and still-slowing Chinese growth.
Still, the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets Index ETF (NYSEArca:VWO) was the third-most-popular ETF in the past week, attracting a net of $891 million.
That's VWO's first net-asset-gaining week since the fund bled $1.74 billion in June and continued on a losing streak in the first two weeks of July. Year-to-date, asset flows into VWO remain in the red, with net outflows of $2.97 billion. But there's growing chatter among market participants that the sell-off in emerging equities could be starting to present some prospective value opportunities for investors willing to take the risk.
On the flip side, the iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility fund (NYSEArca:USMV) saw the week's biggest redemption, bleeding $419.5 million in five days.
Low-volatility ETFs have generally been popular with investors, but they tend to show abias toward defensive stocks and also a lack of exposure to financials-characteristics that can lead to underperformance in strong market rallies, as IndexUniverse's Ugo Egbunike and Elisabeth Kashner pointed out in a recent blog.
Since the beginning of July, the $2.9 billion USMV has lost a net of $766 million in assets, although its year-to-date asset gathering remains solid, with net inflows of $1.92 billion, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
Top 8 Redemptions (All ETFs)
ETF Weekly 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.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
