Active strategies are pulling in cash at a record pace. Institutions are rotating hard into equities, fixed income, and commodities all at once. The risk-on tone is broad — but cracks are appearing beneath the surface.
The US hauled in $37.1B in net ETF inflows this past week. Flow imbalance sat at 66.9, a clear buying-pressure signal. Japan was second at $6.4B, with a healthy imbalance of 66.0.
Global ex-US funds drew $1.5B with an imbalance of 88.3 — one of the strongest buying signals in the entire geography table. Emerging Markets added $1.6B, with an outsized imbalance of 79.3.
The sharpest reversal of the week was South Korea. It pulled in $38.2B over three months — the fourth-largest geography by 3m flows. But this week it flipped to a $1.2B outflow, with a flow imbalance of just 29.9. That is a notable trend break worth watching.
Latin America, Israel, France, and Germany all saw modest outflows over the week. Hong Kong swung from a $12.5B outflow over three months to a slim $163M inflow this week, suggesting early stabilisation.
Financials suffered the heaviest sector outflow this week at $2.7B. The imbalance reading of 18.0 signals strong selling pressure. Over three months, Financials had been a net receiver of $3.7B — making this week's reversal significant.
Energy gained $515M this week. Over three months, it had lost $6.1B. That is a sharp near-term reversal for a sector that has been deeply out of favour.
Industrials added $207M on the week. Over three months it attracted $5.4B, so the trend there remains intact.
Tech (Information Technology) was barely positive at $89M this week. Yet it absorbed $58.3B over three months — by far the biggest sector draw over that period. The near-term slowdown suggests investors may be pausing rather than rotating out.
Health Care and Real Estate both saw small weekly outflows. Over three months both posted solid gains of $6.3B and $5.0B respectively.
Equities led all asset classes with $57.6B in weekly inflows. Fixed income added $18.1B. Commodities brought in $7.0B with an imbalance of 83.3 — the strongest buying pressure of any asset class this week.
The 3m picture tells a different story for commodities. Over that period, they shed $24.9B. This week's $7.0B surge is a potential trend flip and the clearest divergence in the entire dataset.
Currency ETFs also flipped — they lost $2.8B over three months but pulled in $2.4B this week, with an imbalance of 88.7.
Active strategies attracted $12.5B this week at a 76.0 imbalance. Over three months, Active has pulled in $221.5B — 60% as large as the Vanilla passive flow, from a much smaller asset base. Dividend strategies continued their steady build: $704M this week, $17.2B over three months.
The overall tone is risk-on, with broad-based buying across equities, bonds, and commodities — though the Financials sell-off and South Korea reversal are early warning signs that not all trades are moving in the same direction.
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.
