The most striking shift this week is a sharp reversal in technology. Information Technology ETFs bled $3.5B in net outflows over the past five days. Over three months the same sector had pulled in $13.3B. That is the clearest rotation signal in the data.
The US remains the dominant magnet for global capital. US-focused ETFs drew $29.9B in net inflows this week, with a flow imbalance of 64.9, indicating genuine buying pressure rather than two-way churn. Over three months the figure stands at $224.6B, confirming a durable trend.
The most eye-catching one-week mover beyond the US is Global Ex-US, which took in $6.5B with a flow imbalance of 98.5. That near-perfect buying skew suggests concentrated, directional positioning rather than index rebalancing.
Japan reversed sharply. It shed $11.6B this week, the largest single-region outflow in the geography table, with a flow imbalance of just 11.4. Over three months Japan is also in negative territory at -$4.0B, so the selling is not new but it intensified.
Canada attracted $1.9B this week. That fits the macro backdrop: Canada's CPI all-items index printed 169.8 in August, the highest August reading on record since 1914, according to ORTEX Alt Data. Record employment and a record labour force support domestic demand narratives that may be drawing capital. Taiwan ETFs took in $359M this week and $15.1B over three months. ORTEX Alt Data shows Taiwan's total export orders hit $103B in August, the largest August on record since 1984, up 71% year-on-year. Semiconductor-linked demand is clearly visible in both the trade data and the sustained ETF inflows.
Technology's weekly reversal stands in stark contrast to where money is actually going. Financials led sector inflows at $1.0B. Energy added $744M. Consumer Discretionary took $718M. Real Estate drew $479M. Utilities pulled in $448M.
Health Care and Industrials both saw outflows this week, $410M and $401M respectively. Over three months both were solidly positive, so this week marks a short-term pause rather than a trend reversal.
The shift away from IT toward Financials, Energy and Real Estate has a clear defensive-rotation flavour. It also has an income angle: Real Estate and Utilities, the two most yield-sensitive sectors, both gained while momentum-heavy Technology lost.
Both equities and fixed income attracted money this week. Equities pulled in $32.3B. Fixed Income added $21.4B with a flow imbalance of 70.9, the highest of any major asset class. Alternatives saw $3.0B in outflows. Commodities were nearly flat.
The fixed income bid is consistent over three months too, with $276.3B in net inflows. Investors are running equities and bonds simultaneously, a posture that leans risk-on but with a hedging layer underneath.
On strategy, passive Vanilla funds dominated at $34.8B this week. Active strategies added $4.1B. Price-weighted funds, which include some of the largest Japan-linked products, lost $10.3B this week and $16.4B over three months. Dividend strategies attracted $533M this week, consistent with the three-month trend of $13.2B. Momentum strategies lost $932M this week and are down $3.6B over three months, a signal that trend-chasing is out of favour right now.
The overall tone is cautiously risk-on: money is moving into equities and bonds together, away from Japan and momentum, and rotating within equities from high-growth technology toward income-producing and cyclical sectors.
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.
