Japan dominated ETF flows this past week. It pulled in a net $18B — the strongest geographic inflow of any region over the past seven days. The flow imbalance hit 88.7, signalling strong and lopsided buying pressure. That is a sharp contrast to the three-month trend, where U.S. funds led with $362B net over the period. Something is shifting.
The U.S. tells the clearest story of the week. Despite attracting $58B in gross inflows, it suffered $71.6B in outflows. The result was a net loss of $13.4B. Flow imbalance dropped to 44.8, firmly in selling territory. Over three months, the U.S. remained the dominant destination. That 1-week reversal is a notable divergence worth watching.
Beyond Japan, Global ETFs added $6.9B net this week. Emerging Markets brought in $1.7B. Developed Markets Ex-U.S. drew $1.9B. South Korea flipped negative, bleeding $950M over the week — despite posting $37.9B net inflows over three months. Brazil gained $491M in the week. It had been a net loser over three months at -$1.5B. That is a clean reversal worth noting.
The U.K. continued to leak. It lost $246M this week. Over three months, it was also negative at -$312M. Germany lost $78M on the week and $916M over three months. Both markets remain under consistent selling pressure.
Technology is under pressure right now. It shed $3.9B in net flows this week alone — the largest sector outflow by far. Flow imbalance was just 40.1. Yet over three months, Tech attracted $54.3B in net inflows, the biggest sector gain by a wide margin. That three-month momentum is stalling hard in the short term.
Financials also turned ugly this week. It lost $1.7B net, with a flow imbalance of just 26.9. Over three months, Financials was a modest winner at $3.2B.
Materials and Utilities were the two sector winners this week. Materials gained $647M. Utilities pulled in $192M with a solid imbalance of 73.3. Both sectors had three-month support too. Industrials added $5.5B over three months but flipped to a small $188M outflow this week.
Equity funds stayed positive this week at $20.7B net, though the imbalance of 55.1 shows the buying is thin. Fixed Income was healthy at $9.2B net and an imbalance of 61.5. Over three months, Fixed Income collected $235B — a persistent and large allocation.
Commodities made a striking one-week turn. It took in $6.8B net, with a dominant flow imbalance of 85.4. Over three months it was deeply negative at -$12B. That is a meaningful reversal. Currency ETFs also surged to $3B net this week after a three-month outflow of -$1.3B.
On strategy, Active funds led all strategies with $8.5B net this week and a strong imbalance of 73.6. Over three months, Active gathered $221B. The shift from passive Vanilla — which saw -$1.2B net this week — is pronounced. Vanilla still dominated the three-month period at $354B, but the weekly signal is clear. Growth strategies added $1.5B this week. Value lost $620M.
The overall tone is cautious. Money is rotating away from U.S. equities and Tech into international markets, commodities, bonds, and actively managed strategies.
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.
