A look at some of the exchange traded funds most ravaged by outflows this year reads like a who’s who of popular broad market U.S. and emerging markets funds.
The list includes the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) and the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO). A variety of Europe ETFs are not having similar problems as investors continue allocating capital to the continent’s developed markets.
“Investors are looking at the Old World with new eyes — they’re plowing money into the continent’s ETFs at a swift pace,” reports Brendan Conway for Barron’s, noting that the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (NYSEArca: VGK) and the iShares MSCI EMU ETF (NYSEArca: EZU) are among this year’s top asset-gathering ETFs.
Combined, VGK and EZU have raked in over $2.6 billion. Inflows to Europe ETFs in February come after those funds were among the few bright spot for ETF flows last month. “The bright spots for flows in January were in non-US Developed Markets Equity, which gathered $11.2bn as a number of key themes from 2013 continued into the new year,” said BlackRock. “Pan-European Equity brought in $4.0bn aided by the most encouraging January Euro Zone PMI reading since 2011.” [Where Some Lost EM ETF Money is Going]
EZU and VGK are not alone among Europe ETFs in regarding impressive inflows. The WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund (NYSEArca: DFE) has nearly doubled in size in just over two months while the First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund (NYSEArca: FEP) now has $539.3 million in assets, up from $436.5 million when he highlighted the fund last month. [A Hidden Gem Among Europe ETFs]