ETF Asset Report of April
The month of April was all about an economic rebound from the coronavirus-related slump, President Biden’s reported plans to hike capital gain tax on wealthy Americans, another wave of coronavirus in several parts of globe and encouraging corporate earnings growth in the United States. Wall Street was upbeat in the month.
In this scenario, we highlight ETF asset flows for the month of April (per etf.com).
S&P 500 & Total Stock Market Top
The S&P 500 hit record highs in the month on upbeat U.S. economic data points and corporate earnings.The U.S. economy grew an annualized 6.4% in the first quarter of 2021, breezing past expectations of 6.1%, following a 4.3% uptick in the previous three-month period. Apart from the reopening-driven third-quarter jump last year, the latest reading marked the best period for GDP since the third quarter of 2003. The labor market has also been moderately steady and the latest retail sales came in upbeat.
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) amassed about $3.22 billion and $2.2 billion in assets, respectively. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF VTI was the top-performer with inflows of $4.18 billion.
Bond Market Hot Too
Vanguard Short-Term Treasury Index ETF VGSH, Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF BND, iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) and iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF GOVT fetched about $2.40 billion, $2.36 billion, $2.07 billion and $1.76 billion in assets, respectively. Renewed coronavirus threat in different parts of the world have probably given a boost to safe-haven bond investing.
Value & Dividend Winning Corners
Reflationary cues increased benchmark U.S. treasury bond yields in the month to as high as 1.73%. This has brought back investors’ favor to the value corner of investing. Vanguard Value ETF VTV has amassed about $2.16 billion in assets while Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF SCHD has attracted about $1.79 billion in assets. The fund SCHDholds stocks that have a record of consistently paying dividends. Moreover, the fund yields 2.80% annually.
Gold Lost Glitter
With the bond yields rising and Wall Street gaining ground, non-interest-paying and safe-haven asset gold has every reason to outperform. SPDR Gold Trust GLD has lost about $1.12 billion in assets.
Small-Cap ETFs Were Among the Big Losers
iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM saw about $2.53 billion in assets gushing out. In any case, April was dominated by large-cap stocks and ETFs. The fund IWM gained only 1% in the month. Probably this was the reason why investors shied away from the small-cap segment.
Consumer Staples Fell Out of Favor
Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund XLP has seen about $823 million in assets gushing out of the fund. Rising material costs that can have an adverse impact on the companies’ profits, if not successfully passed onto the consumers, may be keeping investors from the fund.
Minimum Volatility ETFs Underperform
iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF USMV too lost about $688 million in assets in the month as the stock market was super-steady and low-volatility stocks and ETFs fell out of investors’ favor.
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SPDR-GOLD TRUST (GLD): ETF Research Reports
SPDR-CONS STPL (XLP): ETF Research Reports
ISHARS-R 2000 (IWM): ETF Research Reports
VIPERS-VALUE (VTV): ETF Research Reports
ISHARS-MS US MV (USMV): ETF Research Reports
ISHARS-US TB (GOVT): ETF Research Reports
VIPERS-TOT STK (VTI): ETF Research Reports
VANGD-SP5 ETF (VOO): ETF Research Reports
VANGD-TOT BOND (BND): ETF Research Reports
VANGD-ST GOV BD (VGSH): ETF Research Reports
SCHWAB-US DV EQ (SCHD): ETF Research Reports
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