Scalper1 News
Similar to January, safe assets were in the spotlight in February thanks to heightened global uncertainty. Dimming prospects of frequent Fed rate hikes this year, global growth worries and oil price issues put a lid on the global risky assets and helped the valuation of safe assets to soar. Though sentiments were slightly better than January, the global markets were broadly mixed. Let’s find out where investors parked their money and the spaces that were avoided in February (per etf.com ): Gold Continues to Shine This refuge continued to dazzle in the month as it is often viewed as a safe haven in times of heightened financial risks. The commodity is on a tear this year, with volatility creeping up. As a result, fund tracking the yellow metal, GLD pulled in $3.38 billion in assets in February. Another gold bullion ETF that hogged investors’ attention was iShares Gold Trust (NYSEARCA: IAU ) , which added $760.5 million in assets. U.S. Treasury Bonds Prevail U.S. Treasuries across the yield spectrum gathered assets in February with iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond (NYSEARCA: IEF ) taking the third spot by drawing $1.06 billion. iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSEARCA: TLT ) also embraced about $841.9 million in assets and made an entry into the top-10 list. Not only the safest bet Treasuries, high-yield bond funds like iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond (NYSEARCA: LQD ) and iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond (NYSEARCA: HYG ) – which were long out of investors’ favor – added $944.9 million and $943.8 million in assets, respectively. As 10-year Treasury bond yields plunged to below the 2% mark, investors jumped to the otherwise risky junk bond ETFs space to meet the need for current income. Apart from this aggregate bond ETF, iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond (NYSEARCA: AGG ) amassed about $952.1 million in assets. Utilities ETFs a Winner While the stocks tumbled mainly to reflect a retreat in risk-on movement, one safe corner of the equity world, namely utilities, ruled in the month. Also, utilities are known for their high dividend payout which made this space a highly longed-for area against the low-yield backdrop. First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX (NYSEARCA: FXU ) and Utilities Select SPDR (NYSEARCA: XLU ) accumulated about $999.2 million and $856.4 million in assets, respectively, in February. U.S. Equities Fall Flat In tandem with the other risky assets, investors fled the U.S. equities’ space. As a result, the U.S. broad equity ETFs saw huge outflows last month with the ultra-popular large-cap U.S. ETF SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEARCA: SPY ) topping the losers’ list. The fund lost around $2.1 billion in assets while another S&P 500-based ETF iShares Core S&P 500 (NYSEARCA: IVV ) saw about $1.18 billion in assets gushing out. Not only the S&P 500, even Nasdaq-based P owerShares (NASDAQ: QQQ ) lost about $722.8 million. Japan ETFs Lose Status Despite the Bank of Japan’s negative interest rate policy, Japan equities ETFs saw investors shunning the area. This was because as yen gained strength on safe-haven demand, equities suffered. WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity (NYSEARCA: DXJ ) and iShares MSCI Japan (NYSEARCA: EWJ ) saw asset outflow of $1.19 billion and $704.8 million, respectively. Biotech Breaks Down The biotech ETF space also fell victim to the high beta crash, which is why First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology (NYSEARCA: FBT ) saw assets worth $1.43 billion flowing out in the month. Original Post Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News