The biggest story this week is a sharp reversal in US equity flows. US-focused ETFs shed a net $30.8B in the past week. Over three months, the same funds pulled in $147.5B. That gap is striking.
Fixed income is the clear beneficiary. Bond ETFs attracted $16.3B in net inflows over the past week. The flow imbalance sits at 64.6 — tilted toward buying. Over three months, fixed income has gathered $266B. That trend is accelerating, not slowing.
International diversification is gaining ground fast. Global Ex-US ETFs pulled in $8.6B this week with a flow imbalance of 98.1. That is near-total buying pressure. Switzerland attracted $520M with a 96.0 imbalance. Sweden saw $226M flow in with zero outflows recorded.
China tells a different story week to week. Chinese ETFs lost $1.9B over the past seven days. Over three months, however, China was the third-biggest destination globally, attracting $48.3B. Short-term nervousness is clearly clashing with a longer structural bet.
India also flipped negative this week. It saw $507M in net outflows with a flow imbalance of just 1.4. Over three months it was also in the red at -$632M. Sentiment there remains fragile.
South Korea shed $658M this week despite pulling in $13.5B over three months. The short-term reversal in both China and Korea suggests emerging Asia is under pressure right now.
Industrials and Tech are bleeding this week. Industrials lost $1.8B and Tech dropped $1.7B. Financials shed another $1.1B. All three had flow imbalances below 46 — outflows dominating.
The rotation is clearly defensive. Real Estate gathered $740M this week with a 76.2 imbalance. Energy attracted $532M. Utilities pulled in $363M. Staples and Consumer Discretionary were both modestly positive.
The contrast with three months is sharp. Tech was the top sector over that period with $20.1B in net inflows. Industrials managed just $808M over 90 days but fell to worst performer in seven days. That is a rapid rotation out of cyclical growth.
Energy reversed completely. It was the fifth-biggest 3m outflow sector at -$2B. This week it flipped to second-biggest inflow at +$532M — a meaningful trend shift.
Currency ETFs saw strong demand this week, with $2.2B in net inflows and an imbalance of 86.9. That signals active hedging activity, consistent with the risk-off tone.
On the strategy front, the rotation is dramatic. Momentum ETFs were wrecked this week — they lost $11.4B, with a flow imbalance of just 1.4. Multi-factor shed $8.2B. Fundamental strategies dropped $8.0B. Growth strategies lost $5.6B and Value another $3.8B.
The winners were Vanilla passive funds, up $13.6B, and Active ETFs, up $9.3B. Over three months, Active gathered $120.6B — easily outpacing all other strategies. That trend remains intact.
Overall, the week's data points firmly toward risk-off. Investors are selling US equities and cyclical sector bets. They are moving into bonds, currency hedges, and defensive sectors like Real Estate, Energy, and Utilities.
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.
