The biggest story this week is unambiguous. U.S.-focused ETFs pulled in a net $22.5B over the past seven days. That is the dominant geography flow by a wide margin. Japan added another $5.2B. Both regions are seeing genuine buying pressure, with flow imbalance scores of 65 and 63 respectively — both in the "strong inflows" zone.
The sharpest reversal belongs to China. Over three months, China attracted $31.3B in net inflows. This week, it flipped hard — posting a $5.9B outflow with a flow imbalance of just 22.5. Sellers are firmly in control of China-focused ETFs right now. Taiwan followed a similar pattern, swinging from a solid $23.7B in over three months to a $668M outflow this week.
The U.S. remains the anchor of global ETF demand. $337B flowed into U.S.-focused funds over three months. The one-week pace of $22.5B is consistent with that trend. Developed Markets Ex-U.S. funds also saw strong one-week buying pressure, with a flow imbalance of 79.6. Japan held up well in both periods — $64B over three months and $5.2B this week. Emerging Markets as a broad category stayed positive on both timeframes.
The notable outlier is Hong Kong. It bled $8.6B over three months and remains in negative territory this week. Brazil is also on both naughty lists — $1.8B out over three months and $486M this week, with a flow imbalance of just 9.2.
Tech holds the title for largest sector inflows over three months — $53.3B net. This week, however, it barely scraped positive at $1.1B, with a flow imbalance of just 54.6. Buyers and sellers are nearly matched in tech right now.
Financials and Industrials are this week's clear losers. Financials shed $1.0B and Industrials $646M in the past seven days. That marks a reversal for Industrials, which showed a positive $3.6B over the three-month period. Health Care quietly stands out — $344M inflow this week and $7.3B over three months, with consistent buying pressure across both windows.
Energy is a notable flip. It lost $5.4B over three months but attracted $137M this week. Small, but the direction changed.
Equities dominated across both timeframes. $33.7B flowed into equity ETFs this week, versus $701.9B over three months. Fixed Income was a steady second — $11.6B this week, $226.9B over three months. Notably, commodities reversed sharply. They were $6.9B in the red over three months but pulled in $4.0B this week, the strongest commodity week relative to trend.
On strategy, Active management is accelerating its market share grab. It took in $5.2B this week and $206B over three months — a flow imbalance of 69 and 77 respectively. Vanilla passive remains the biggest bucket at $26.2B this week. Value strategies attracted $1.75B this week, running ahead of Growth at $504M — a shift from the broader three-month picture where both were positive but growth's ratio was tighter.
Overall, the tone is risk-on. Equities are winning. The U.S. leads. Commodities are stirring. China is the week's clearest risk-off signal.
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.
