Emerging Markets & Bond ETFs Bolster Weekly Inflows

Investors tiptoed back into ETFs as volatility cooled off this week. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) briefly dropped below 17 on Friday, the lowest point since Feb. 2, and less than half the level of the recent highs.

Still, even as the U.S. stock market stabilized, investors remained cautious. They pulled out $2.4 billion from U.S. equity ETFs as concerns about interest rates and inflation lingered.

As has often been the case this month, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) was the biggest flows loser this week, with outflows of $1.3 billion.

On the other hand, where investors did add money was international equity ETFs. That segment picked up $4.5 billion of new money. The iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG), in particular, was popular, with inflows of $1.3 billion.

Also seeing investor interest this week were fixed-income ETFs. U.S. fixed-income ETFs had inflows of $2 billion, while international fixed-income ETFs had inflows of $570 million. That’s despite the fact that, all throughout the week, investors fretted about rising interest rates and whether the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield would top 3%.

The yield didn’t make it quite that high. It peaked around 2.95% on Wednesday before falling to as low as 2.86% on Friday.

The SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) was this week’s biggest beneficiary of bargain buying in the fixed-income space, with inflows of nearly $500 million.

Adding it all up, U.S.-listed ETFs had net inflows of $4.9 billion during the week ending Thursday, Feb. 22, according to FactSet. That brings year-to-date inflows to $50.1 billion.

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

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.