Consequently, large and fast traders would probably prefer SPY while long-term investors would stick to cheaper VOO or IVV.
Meanwhile, the emerging market outlook has improved on signs of economic stabilization in China, recovering commodity prices and a depreciating U.S. dollar, which helped investors hone in on the undervalued asset category after the recent Brexit vote.
The outperformance in the developing market space helped drive investors into emerging market-related ETFs, with the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: EEM), which tracks the benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets Index, attracting $3.7 billion in net inflows. Additionally, among the top 10 most popular ETFs by asset inflows for the past month, the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: IEMG) added $1 billion and the iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF (NYSEArca: EMB) attracted $1.5 billion.
SEE MORE: ETF Performance Report – July
The growth category also attracted its fair share of attention, with the PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ) bringing in $1.5 billion in inflows, on the rallying equities market, outperformance of the growth category and better-than-expected second quarter earnings results.
Investors may finally be favoring growth over value as top ETF outflows for July show Consumer Staples Select SPDR (NYSEArca: XLP) had $507 million in outflows, Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLF) experienced $491 million in outflows and Utilities Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLU) shrunk by $425 million.
Additionally, among fixed-income options, riskier corporate credit remain the main draw. Over July, popular bond ETFs include iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond (NYSEArca: LQD), which attracted $1.8 billion in net inflows, and iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: HYG), which saw $1.6 billion in inflows.