A quiet week given the long holiday weekend in the UK, but global ETF flows poured in with many markets in the green territory, albeit a bit muted.

Fund Launches and Updates

EMEA

Global X is expanding its range of ETFs listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange. The two ETFs are: Global X Uranium UCITS ETF – USD ACC. and the Global X Silver Miners UCITS ETF – USD ACC. Both ETFs have TERs of 0.65%. ETF World

HSBC Global Asset Management is closing the $33m HSBC MSCI EM Far East UCITS ETF (HMFD) due to a lack of investor demand. The fund will close next month on 6 July 2022. Investment Week

THE AMERICAS

It sounds like Alliance Bernstein may be approaching their launch date sooner rather than later with their recent Global Head of Capital Markets hire, Anita Rausch.

Earlier this year, the firm filed the AB Ultra Short Income ETF and the AB Tax-Aware Short Duration ETF which will be among a suite of active ETF offerings later this year. Investment Week

Full List of U.S. ETF Launches:

ASIA-PACIFIC

Following Australia’s recent approvals of crypto-based ETFs, Canada’s 3iQ Digital Asset Management launched two crypto feeder ETFs on the Cboe Australia Exchange this week.

The two feeder funds, one in Bitcoin and another in Ether, track the asset’s price via 3iQ’s respective spot-traded Bitcoin and Ethereum funds trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Forkast

Perpetual Asset Management Australia has launched an actively managed ETF on the ASX this week – the Barrow Hanley Global Share Fund. Financial Standard

Fund Flows and Trading Volume

 

In Europe, flows fell off a cliff in May as macro events began to take their toll on investor sentiments.

European ETPs gained net inflows of $1.9bn for the month vs the previous month which attracted inflows of $17bn

Equities and Fixed income gained $2bn and $1.3bn respectively but these were offset but outflows in Commodities of $1.4bn.

Cryptocurrencies had a relatively flat month despite the major dramas going on in that asset class. Net outflows of $37m should be considered a good month all considering. ETFBook

In the U.S., investors poured $69 billion into ETFs in May, but only 54% of the funds had inflows, compared with the historical average of 64%, according to a State Street Global Advisors report.

Equity ETFs had the most inflows, at almost $39 billion, while fixed-income funds attracted about $34 billion. Commodity ETFs saw about $3.6 billion of outflows.

ESG ETFs suffered their first monthly outflows for more than three years as investors withdrew $2bn from these funds, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence. Citywire

Canadian ETF inflows posted an increase in May compared to the previous month but remained well below levels seen at the start of 2022.

According to new data from National Bank of Canada, net inflows reached $2.4 billion in May, up from $1.5 billion in April, but less than half of the near $5 billon level of January and February.

Inflows were led by equity ETFs with a net $1.4 billion. Fixed income ETFs saw a total $216 million net inflow, led by “cash alternative” (or “high interest savings”) ETFs.

Unlike Europe and the U.S., May’s stats also show a rebound for crypto-asset ETFs with $565 million inflows, the best of the year so far, following one of the largest pull-backs by investors in this category ($338 million) in April. Wealth Professional

Noteworthy

In the U.S., according to the Investment Company Institute, passively managed index funds have overtaken actively managed funds’ ownership of the US stock market for the first time.

Passive funds accounted for 16% of US stock market capitalisation at the end of 2021, surpassing the 14% held by active funds.

The pattern represents a sharp reversal of the picture 10 years ago, when active funds held 20% of Wall Street stocks and passive ones just 8%.

Since then, the US has seen a cumulative net flow of more than $2tn from actively managed domestic equity funds to passive ones, primarily ETFs.

Actively managed domestic equity mutual funds have suffered net outflows every year since 2005, even as their passive peers have had inflows every year bar 2020 and 2021.

US-listed ETFs, the overwhelming majority of them passive, have seen their assets rise fivefold to $7.2bn since 2012.

The number of ETFs available to US investors jumped by 398 in 2021, with 457 debuting — more than double the previous record of 197 set in 2015 — and just 59 were liquidated or merged.

In contrast, the number of mutual funds has declined every year since 2016. Financial Times

Additional reads

 

ESG Equity Funds experienced record month of outflows in May. Bloomberg

European ETF market will have to wait for consolidated tape. ETF Stream

Father of VIX Wades Into Bitcoin ETF Battle to back Grayscale bid. Bloomberg

Interactive brokers has launched fractional trading European stocks and ETFs. Finance Feeds

Crypto-linked ETFs ere 2022’s biggest losers with 60% drawdowns. Bloomberg