ETFs Decrease by $17B in August

According to State Street Global Advisors’ most-recent “ETF Snapshot” report, Europe experienced inflows of $1 billion in August, increasing its year-to-date inflows to $8.3 billion. The Asia-Pacific region and Canada had minor outflows.

In terms of global performance by asset class, MSCI AC World IMI decreased 2.1%, while MSCI EAFE decreased by 1.3%. Emerging markets lost 1.7%, while emerging markets small-cap fell 2.8%. U.S. large- cap, mid-cap and small-cap markets were all negative, falling 2.9%, 3.8% and 2.4%, respectively. The Global Aggregate decreased 0.5% and the Global Treasury Ex-U.S. fell 0.3%. The U.S. High Yield, the U.S. Aggregate, the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Corporate Bond markets were all negative in August. The U.S. real estate investment trust (REIT) market was down 6.9%. Commodities were positive, with the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index gaining 3.4% and gold jumping 6.1%.

Global ETF outflows topped $16.7 billion in August. Equity had outflows of $9.4 billion. The equity outflows were driven by the developed-market large cap equity category, with $11.4 billion in outflows. Fixed income had outflows of $6.5 billion, which were driven by outflows of $3.3 billion in developed market treasuries.

The top three families in the global ETF marketplace were BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors and Vanguard. Collectively, they account for approximately 70% of the global ETF market.