Analyst Paul Weisbruch of Street One Financial brings us his daily fund flows update, which today looks at more outflows from the largest ETF on earth, a reversal of flows back into junk bond funds, and some upside options bets on emerging markets.
Outflows continue to build this week in SPY, with more than $6.1 billion leaving the fund during the recent pullback in equities.
Conversely, High Yield Corporate Bonds, as we have mentioned this week, have seen some assets return to the funds via creation flows. Over $1.3 billion has returned to HYG, while more than $450 million has entered JNK during the same time frame.
This comes after a period of sustained outflows, and is an interesting one hundred eighty degree turn. Also interestingly, both funds have also seen downside hedgers appear this week via puts, buying the June 35 puts in JNK and the April 86 puts in HYG.
In other action, near term upside April 40.50 calls in EEM have been fairly active this week as well, which are slightly out-of-the-money with several weeks until expiration.
The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF was trading at $39.73 per share on Thursday morning, up $0.03 (+0.08%). Year-to-date, EEM has gained 13.48%, versus a 5.22% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
EEM currently has an ETF Daily News SMART Grade of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #2 of 77 ETFs in the Emerging Markets Equities ETFs category.