On The Fly: Weekly technical notes for S&P 500

For the week, fund flows were considerably lighter than we have seen in recent times, per data from ETF.com. Among the top-twenty ETFs, creations outpaced redemptions by a factor of 1.7 to 1. In terms of creations, the skew between funds was smaller than usual, with various index funds dominating and then bond funds. The largest single inflow was to the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) which was followed closely by the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA). Those two funds accounted for over 25% of creations. A variety of S&P 500 index and sector funds comprised over 39% of inflows. Those funds were the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), Financials (XLF), Energy (XLE), and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). Bond funds were over 25% of inflows. Those bond funds were the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK), iShares JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF (EMB), and the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD). On the redemptions side, there was not only little in the way of skew, but a near-absence of theme. There was one standout fund, the iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF (EFV), which alone comprised over 29% of outflows. The remaining funds exhibited far less skew and were much smaller in scale.