ETF Assets Fall in October
The latest exchange-traded-fund (ETF) data from State Street Global
Advisors (SSgA) show that industry-wide total assets were down $5.3
billion, or 0.08%, to $689 billion for October.
SSgA’s ETF Snapshot indicates the size and sector categories fell the most in absolute terms, down $8.6 billion and $3.1 billion, respectively. Fixed-income assets climbed to nearly $94 billion, a 3.3% gain for the month. International ETFs are now the largest single category, with $166 billion in assets.
Meanwhile, declines were concentrated in the large-cap and small-cap categories, as large-cap fell more than $5.3 billion and small-cap swooned more than $2.3 billion.
Seven of the 10 sectors lost assets, with one-third of the total sector losses coming from Financials. The remaining losses were spread evenly among Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, Industrials, Materials, Technology, and Utilities.
The top three managers in the U.S. ETF marketplace were: Barclay’s Global Investors, State Street Global Advisors, and Vanguard. Collectively, they accounted for approximately 84.9% of the U.S.-listed ETF market.
The top three U.S. ETFs in terms of assets were: the SPDR S&P 500, SPDR Gold Shares, and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets.
In terms of the broader markets, the S&P 500 fell 1.9% in October and MSCI EAFE gained 1.2% for the month in U.S. dollar terms. In the fixed–income markets, the Barclays Capital U.S. Treasury Index fell 0.05%, while the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Index gained 0.49%.