The ETF Space Is Kicking Off 2021 with Record Inflows March 12, 2021
The exchange traded fund universe is expanding at its fastest pace ever to the start of a new year. The ETF space accumulated record monthly flows in February on rising bets of an economic rebound in 2021.
According to ETFGI data, investors funneled $139.5 billion into ETFs, with a majority of the new flows going into those that track the stock markets, the Financial Times reports. The record monthly inflows for the ETF industry was 5.7% higher than the previous best month for new business at $132 billion, which was set back recently in November.
March 8, 2021
Despite the spike in Treasury yields and the pullback in the equity markets, exchange traded fund investors continue to plow more money into the stock market.
According to State Street Global Advisors, U.S.-listed ETFs are off to their best start ever. Inflows have totaled $152 billion over the first two months of 2021. The inflows for the first two months of the year outstrips the prior best start by over 74%, or $88 billion, in 2017.
“In fact, only the flows from November and December 2020, when the dual headwinds of vaccine timeline and election uncertainty were initially removed, provided a better two-month period. Combining the last two months of 2020 and the first two months of 2021 leads to a total of $309 billion of flows in the past four months. If those four months were a full calendar year, it would rank fifth all-time – a strong testament to the bullish positioning from investors as of late,” Matthew J Bartolini, Head of SPDR Americas Research, St
VWO, the largest emerging market-related ETF by assets, brought in more money in the five days through Thursday than any of the more than 2,400 other funds in U.S. exchanges, Bloomberg reports. The Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF enjoyed its biggest weekly inflow in two years.
On the other hand, ETFs that track the Nasdaq 100 Index shares, gold, silver, real estate, global bonds, and inflation-linked securities all suffered heavy outflows. Additionally, dollar debt, which is usually the most popular segment within the emerging markets, was also losing to stocks.
The emerging market space has attracted the attention of some big money managers. For example, Ashmore Group Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS Group AG have all been supporting a bullish case for emerging-market equities so far in 2021, predicting the category to be a prime beneficiary of the post-coronavirus economic recovery process.
March 2, 2021
The recent spike in yields and growing inflation concerns have weighed on equity markets. This new environment could be ripe for value and small cap ETFs.
Gargi Chaudhuri, Head of US iShares Markets & Investments Strategy, argued that the recent developments are a result of a new normalization.
“Within equities, we expect that ETFs tilted towards value and cyclicals will continue to benefit as rates move higher and the yield curve steepens – with over $8bn of ETF inflows to the value factor corroborating this view,” Chaudhuri said in note, remarking on asset flows so far in 2021.
“The reopening in the second half of the year will continue to fuel the reflation theme, but nominal interest rates are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels,” Chaudhuri added.
February 25, 2021
Small-capitalization stocks and related ETFs have been outperforming their large cap counterparts by the widest margin in over two decades as investors shift out of coronavirus pandemic plays and look to a broad economic recovery.
The
iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM), which tracks the widely observed Russell 2000 Index, increased 15.8% so far this year and jumped 42.1% over the past year. Meanwhile, the
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV), which tracks the benchmark S&P 500 Index, gained 4.8% year-to-date and advanced 23.8% over the past year.
Through the end of last Friday, the Russell 2000 index of small companies climbed 15% and set 10 closing records in 2021, well above the S&P 500’s 4% gain, marking the widest such gap between the two indices through Feb. 19 since 2000, the Wall Street Journal reported.