Record highs get bought, but the leverage crowd sits out
ETF inflows reached nearly $50 billion last week as the S&P 500 crossed above 7,800. Index funds and Treasuries took the cash; leveraged funds saw outflows.
Nearly $50 billion of net inflows landed in U.S.-listed ETFs in the week ended Aug. 13, per ETF Trends. The S&P 500 had just crossed above 7,800 for the first time. Equity funds took in roughly $31 billion. Domestic strategies handled $23 billion of that.
SPY led everything. The State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF added $6.4 billion. The Invesco QQQ Trust pulled in $6.2 billion. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF rounded out the top three with $5 billion.
The rest of the top 10 looked much the same. VOO, the Vanguard S&P 500 fund, took $3.8 billion. SPYM, the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF, gathered $2 billion. The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF collected $1.7 billion. QQQM, the Invesco Nasdaq 100 fund, added $1.4 billion. EFV, the iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF, came in at $1.1 billion, the only international equity fund to make the list.
One active fund did not fit the pattern. The iShares U.S. Equity Factor Rotation Active ETF, DYNF, added $979.2 million. Over the past year it has collected $12.5 billion. Its assets now stand at $41 billion, according to ETF Trends.
The outflows were isolated. Currency funds and leveraged ETFs were the only asset classes to post net redemptions. At a record high, the leverage crowd sat out. The buying went into unlevered index funds and Treasuries.
The fixed income flows formed a barbell. TLT, the long bond fund, took in $5 billion. SGOV, which holds three-month bills, took in $1.7 billion. Allocators bought duration and cash in the same week.
Gold's weekly and yearly flows are out of step. GLD saw inflows last week, and the first half of August was mostly positive. Year-to-date, the fund remains in net outflow of $6.7 billion. The metal had a spectacular 2025, but the fund flows have not followed, per ETF Trends.
The record high was bought, but with conditions. Those conditions: unlevered index funds, long Treasuries, T-bills, a modest amount of factor-based active. Investors want the S&P 500 at 7,800, and they want it with a hedge.
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