U.S. ETF inflows in November fell to $4.7 billion from $20.3 billion in October, Morningstar reported Thursday, and ETF assets dropped by 1.5% to end November with just over $1 trillion. Still, ETF assets under management have grown about 12% from the same period last year, says Morningstar, noting that the U.S. ETF industry hasn't seen a net outflow in six months.
As for the major ETF groups, iShares "fell victim to the largest monthly outflow of any provider, shedding $1.3 billion in aggregate," said Morningstar ETF analyst Abraham S.H. Bailin in the report. "Despite the outflow, iShares' market share remains a healthy 41.83% of all ETF assets."
The largest inflows last month went to State Street Global Advisors, or SSGA, which took in $3.2 billion, mainly in its gold offering (GLD). Vanguard trailed SSGA, gathering nearly $2 billion in new assets last month, the Chicago-based research firm reported.
U.S. Back in the Red
U.S.-stock ETFs lost $5.3 billion in September, but saw a "stellar rebound [in October], as the asset class collected nearly $11 billion," explained Bailin. "November, however, put the category back in the red, as $2.3 billion exited the asset class.
Outflows from the iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM) and iShares S&P 500 Index (IVV) totaled $3.2 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively, in November. They were followed by the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF), Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLU) and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA), which each lost an average of about $550 million.
International ETF Flows
The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEM), however, collected just under $150 million in November after seeing inflows of $3.5 billion in October.
Gold Flows
U.S commodities ETFs collected roughly $3 billion in November, Morningstar says, driven by two offerings in particular: The SPDR Gold Shares GLD gathered a whopping $3.1 billion, and the iShares Gold Trust (IAU) picked up $366 million last month.
Other commodity-focused ETFs–like PowerShares DB Agriculture (DBA)–saw outflows of about $100 million each.
Taxable Bonds
Year to date, the taxable-bond asset class has seen the largest share of ETF inflows, and in November had inflows of $5.2 billion–topping other asset classes.
Outflows that did occur involved ETFs with longer durations and lower ratings Morningstar reported. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT), for instance, bled $537 million.
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