Is a Bear on the Loose for ETFs?

A question hanging above the heads of exchange traded fund (ETF) investors and others is: "Is a recession looming on the horizon?"

TrimTabs for Forbes responds with another question as a response: "If companies were anticipating a recession, why would they be spending records amounts of cash buying their own shares?"

In the ETF world, there has been some buying and selling going on in areas you might expect. During five days that ended Thursday, Sept. 6, U.S. equity ETFs redeemed $6.3 billion. Futures-related ETFs redeemed $6.8 billion and non-futures-related ETFs issued $1.6 billion. Short ETFs issued $429 million. The leading issuers included:

• PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ) – issued $1.4 billion
• Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) – issued $823 million
• streetTRACKS Gold Shares (GLD) – issued $601 million

Leading redeemers include:

• SPDRs (SPY) – redeemed $6.3 billion
• iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM) – redeemed $2.5 billion
• Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU) – redeemed $463 million