Investing February 8, 2013

ETF Flows Top $29B in January

February 8, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Exchange-traded fund (ETF) assets increased $67.7 billion (5.0%) in January.
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According to State Street Global Advisors (SSgA’s) latest ETF Snapshot report, 1,239 ETFs, with assets totaling $1.4 trillion, were managed by 38 ETF managers as of January 31, 2013.   

The S&P 500 returned 5.2%, while the MSCI EAFE increased 5.3%. Commodities were positive, with the S&P GSCI up 4.4% and Gold increasing 0.4%. U.S. Bonds were negative, with the Barclays U.S. Treasury Index and the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index dipping 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively.  

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ETF flows topped $29 billion in January. The International-Developed and International-Emerging categories both had a strong month, attracting $5.4 billion and $6.9 billion in inflows, respectively. The Dividend/Fundamental category posted $3.9 billion.  

The top three managers in the U.S. ETF marketplace are still BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard—collectively accounting for approximately 84% of the U.S.-listed ETF marketplace. The top three ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for the month were the SPDR S&P 500 [SPY], the iShares Russell 2000 [IWM] and the PowerShares QQQ [QQQ].

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