Assets Decline, But What Lies Ahead
About: SPDRs (NYSE: SPY), iShares S&P 500 Index Fund (NYSE: IVV), Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM), iShares MSCI EAFE Index (NYSE: EFA), PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE: UUP), iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (NYSE: FXI), Charles Schwab, ETF Securities, PIMCO, exchange traded funds (ETFs), ETF Profit Report
After putting up some gaudy numbers in terms of new inflows in 2009, it may come as a surprise to some that ETFs saw their total assets under management decline to $744.7 billion at the end of January from $790.9 billion at the end of December. If you're looking for a silver lining, that statistc is somewhat misleading because the bulk of the ouflows were found in the SPDRs (NYSE: SPY), the S&P 500 tracking ETF, which saw outflows of $16 billion in January.
The even brighter side is that this happens every January. Fund managers and other institutional investors throw billions of dollars into SPY every December to do some year-end window-dressing and then pull out of the ETF when the new year starts.
The iShares S&P 500 Index Fund (NYSE: IVV), SPY's main rival, saw outflows of $200 million in January. Other big ETFs such as the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM) and the iShares MSCI EAFE Index (NYSE: EFA) combined with SPY and IVV to see outflows of $18.2 billion. Overall, 423 exchanged traded products saw net inflows while 179 ETFs and ETNs saw net outflows.
Vanguard gained $3.7 billion in new investments joining Rydex and Van Eck as the only top-10 ETF issuers to see positive inflows for January. New ETF issuers such as Charles Schwab, ETF Securities and PIMCO also saw significant inflows last month. The PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE: UUP) saw its assets shrink to $2.2 billion from $3.2 billion and the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (NYSE: FXI) saw its assets under management dwindle to $8 billion from $10.2 billion.
There were 21 new ETFs and one ETN that started trading in January and no exchange traded products were delisted. New product launches have been above 20 for the last three months. The pipeline of new filings was also robust in January as iShares, FirstTrust, WisdomTree, PowerShares and Van Eck, among others, announced plans for ETFs to be launched later this year.
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Committed To Your ETF Profits,
Jim Trippon,
Editor, ETF Profit Report
Disclosure: no positions