On The Fly: ETF fund flow highlights

For the week ETF flows skewed heavily to the sell side per data from ETF.com, by a factor of 1.9 to 1 for redemptions versus creations. On the redemptions side the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) which accounted by itself for over 44% of outflows. The third largest outflow was from a sector ETF, the Financials (XLF) which is very unusual and accounted for nearly 11% of redemptions. In aggregate S&P 500 funds made up more than 63% of redemptions. Emerging market outflows were also heavy at 20% of redemptions from the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) and iShares JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF (EMB). On the creations side the skews were not as extreme. The bulk of inflows were to various forms of bond funds including the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG), Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND), iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), and iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF (GOVT). Those funds accounted for over 37% of total inflows.