Institutional money moved decisively into equities last week. Across all asset classes, equity ETFs pulled in a net $76.9B in the past seven days. Fixed income added another $8.0B. Commodities and currencies bled out, with currencies shedding $460M on a net basis.
The dominant theme over one week is unmistakable: risk is on.
The U.S. led all regions with $31.3B in net inflows last week. Flow imbalance hit 66.7, signalling clear buying pressure. Japan ranked second at $13.9B, with an imbalance of 83.2 — one of the strongest readings globally. China followed at $12.7B net inflow, a sharp acceleration versus its more modest three-month average of $18.7B across 90 days. That compression tells its own story: China's pace of weekly inflows has surged.
Taiwan drew $4.0B last week alone. Its flow imbalance of 95.1 shows near-universal buying pressure. Over three months, Taiwan totalled $23.9B, putting last week's haul at roughly 17% of the whole quarter in a single stretch.
Hong Kong remains the outlier. It bled $1.4B last week and $9.4B over three months. Flow imbalance sat at 22.5 — deep in seller territory. India also saw a net outflow of $435M this week, with an imbalance of just 6.6.
Europe was quiet. Developed Europe recorded only $405M in net inflows this week. Over three months it showed a net outflow of $1.96B — a slow but consistent retreat.
Technology dominated sector flows with $11.7B net last week. That dwarfs everything else. The three-month total for tech stands at $74.6B, confirming this is a sustained trend, not a one-week anomaly.
Energy reversed course sharply. It saw $512M in net outflows last week. Over three months, that deteriorated to $4.9B in outflows — the worst of any sector. The sell-off is deepening, not stabilising.
Financials attracted $1.3B net this week. Real Estate added $668M. Both showed positive but modest three-month flows. Health Care was nearly flat at the sector level this week, but accumulated $5.9B over three months — a slow, steady accumulation.
Communication Services posted a small $207M outflow this week, continuing a flat three-month trend of $237M net out.
Equities captured 90% of all ETF inflows last week. Commodities posted $516M net inflow weekly but shed $30.3B over three months — a dramatic reversal. Investors appear to be dipping back in tactically after a brutal quarter of outflows.
Vanilla passive ETFs pulled in $53.4B last week. Active strategies added $6.5B. The 3-month picture shows active strategies growing faster in relative terms — $230.7B over 90 days — suggesting a steady structural shift toward managed approaches.
Dividend ETFs showed strong buying pressure this week, with a flow imbalance of 94.7. Momentum strategies also attracted $826M with an imbalance of 89.2. ESG bled $161M net this week, though it stayed positive over three months at $8.9B — suggesting short-term rotation out of ESG rather than a structural exit.
The overall tone is firmly risk-on: equities up, currencies out, tech leading, and Asia — particularly Japan, Taiwan, and China — attracting the most aggressive buying pressure seen all quarter.
ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
