The biggest story this week: US-focused ETFs bled $8.8B in net outflows. That reverses the dominant 3-month trend, where US funds attracted $328B. Institutional money is rotating sharply into international markets right now.
Japan is the week's top destination. ETFs focused on Japan pulled in $7.9B net this week, with a flow imbalance of 69.6 — a clear buying skew. Over 3 months, Japan has drawn $60.8B, confirming this is a sustained trend rather than a one-week blip.
Global and Developed Markets Ex-US funds followed with $6.4B and $2.1B respectively. Emerging Markets added $1.8B on the week. Flow imbalances across those categories all sit above 85, indicating very lopsided buying pressure.
The sharpest short-term reversal belongs to South Korea and Taiwan. Both attracted tens of billions over 3 months — $41.1B and $24.2B respectively. This week, both flipped to outflows: South Korea lost $465M, Taiwan $373M. China also swung from $36B in 3-month inflows to a $421M weekly outflow. The momentum trade in Asian markets is showing early signs of fatigue.
The UK remains consistently unloved. It posted $237M in outflows this week and has no meaningful positive 3-month trend either, with a flow imbalance of just 19.5.
Information Technology suffered the worst sector outflow this week: $3.7B left. That follows a $52.9B inflow over 3 months. This is a significant near-term reversal. Financials shed $1.7B on the week, also flipping from positive 3-month flows of $3.2B.
Energy and Industrials each saw around $430-474M in weekly outflows. Both were also modestly positive over 3 months.
On the other side, Real Estate attracted $264M. Health Care added $259M. Utilities pulled in $199M. These three sectors — defensive in character — are the week's clear winners. The rotation away from growth and cyclicals toward defensives is a notable tone shift.
Every major asset class saw inflows this week. Equities led with $15.5B net. Fixed Income added $9.5B. Commodities attracted $4.9B — a sharp contrast to their 3-month outflow of $8.7B, suggesting a potential inflection. Currencies drew $2.5B.
Over 3 months, equities dominate at $693B, followed by Fixed Income at $230B.
On strategy, Active funds are the clear winner this week at $6.3B net inflow, with a flow imbalance of 69.3. Over 3 months, Active funds have accumulated $207B — well ahead of Vanilla passive strategies on a relative basis. Fundamental and Equal-weight strategies also attracted strong flows this week, each near $2.5B.
Price-weighted ETFs shed $2.8B on the week, the only major strategy in clear outflow territory.
The overall tone is cautious rotation: defensive sectors gaining, tech retreating, and international markets absorbing flows that previously poured into the US.
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.
