In Practice July 14, 2010

ETF Assets Fall in June

State Street’s latest ETF Snapshot reveals assets in the U.S. exchange traded fund (ETF) industry totaled approximately $772 billion as of June 30 – down $11.7 billion or 1.5% during the month.

Reported by

 

Through the first half of the year, ETF assets were down $3.5 billion or 0.4%. As of June 30, 897 ETFs were managed by 33 ETF managers.   

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The reported noted that the S&P 500 Index fell 5.2% while the MSCI EAFE Index fell 1%, in June. U.S. bonds rose, with the Barclays U.S. Treasury Index gaining 1.9% and the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index climbing 1.6%. Gold rose $37 to $1,244 per ounce.    

Declines in the Size and Style categories accounted for the majority of the total drop in ETF AUM. The Fixed Income and Commodity categories rose $6.2 billion and $3.1 billion, respectively.    

Year to date, the only areas with positive asset growth are Commodities, up $11 billion; Fixed Income, up $21 billion; Dividend/Fundamental, up $2 billion; and Inverse/Leveraged, up $1.8 billion.    

Large Cap assets fell $3.9 billion, followed by Small Cap, down $2.2 billion. All Sector categories declined in assets except Utilities, which gained $55 million. Energy and Financials each fell over $1 billion in assets for the month.  

According to the report, the top three managers in the U.S. ETF marketplace at the end of June were BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard. Collectively, they accounted for approximately 84% of the U.S.-listed ETF market.    

The top three ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for the month were: the SPDR S&P 500 [SPY], iShares Russell 2000 [IWM], and PowerShares QQQ [QQQQ]. SPDR Gold Shares [GLD] saw the most inflows, $2.3 billion, followed by SPDR S&P 500, $1.6 billion. 

 
Products July 14, 2010

Hartford Cuts Funds’ Expense Ratios

The Hartford Mutual Funds has announced permanent fund expense reductions, effective July 1, 2010, on 36 funds covering institutional and retirement share classes as well as the retail share classes of six funds. 

Reported by

A news release said net operating expenses have been decreased up to 30 basis points for institutional, retirement and retail share classes, of the following funds: 

  • The Hartford Diversified International Fund 
  • The Hartford Fundamental Growth Fund 
  • The Hartford Global Research Fund 
  • The Hartford International Growth Fund 
  • The Hartford International Opportunities Fund 
  • The Hartford Value Fund (Includes an additional temporary management fee waiver of five basis points for one year, ending June 30, 2011.) 

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Additionally, net operating expenses have been decreased up to 15 basis points for the institutional and retirement share classes of 30 other Hartford Mutual Funds, the company said. 

“We want to expand our institutional market share and the expense reductions enhance our offerings for investment consultants and financial advisers,” said Joseph Eck, vice president of The Hartford’s investment-only business, in the news release. 

New expense tables are shown in the updated Summary Prospectus and supplements, which are available online at www.hartfordmutualfunds.com/prospectuses.

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