China Surge Leads Week as Value Falls Out of Favour

China ETFs pulled in $23.9B in a single week. That is the dominant story in fund flows right now. The buying pressure score hit 82.8 out of 100, meaning selling was almost absent. Over three months, China had attracted $39.8B. The weekly pace is now running well ahead of that trend, suggesting the move is accelerating rather than fading.

Japan flipped sharply. Over three months, Japan ETFs bled $13.3B, the only major geography with a meaningful net outflow over that window. This week, $5.5B flowed in, with a buying pressure score of 87.8. That is a clean reversal. Whether it holds is unclear, but the short-term signal is the strongest of any region this week.

Geography Flows

The US drew $3.3B this week on flat buying pressure (51.8), consistent with steady but unexcited domestic demand. Over three months, US ETFs absorbed $271.9B, still the largest absolute total by far. The gap between China's weekly momentum and US inflows is narrowing faster than the three-month picture suggests.

Global Ex-US ETFs posted a 94.9 buying pressure score this week, with $1.6B of net inflows and almost no selling. That extreme imbalance points to institutional positioning outside the home market, not just passive rebalancing. South Korea was the only region to post a clear weekly outflow at -$1.2B, with a buying pressure score of just 36.8.

India saw net outflows both this week (-$37M) and over three months (-$954M). Buying pressure this week was just 8.6, the weakest of any major geography.

Sector Rotation

Information Technology led sector inflows at $1.6B for the week, though the buying pressure score was only 55.1. That means flows were real but not one-sided. Over three months, Tech drew $14.4B, keeping it top of the sector table.

The contrast with Industrials is striking. Industrials pulled in $494M this week. Over three months, Industrials actually posted a net outflow of -$718M. That is a genuine rotation shift: money that was leaving the sector three months ago is now coming back.

Utilities was the hardest-hit sector this week at -$876M, with a buying pressure score of just 20.2. Over three months, Utilities had attracted $1.7B. Sellers are now firmly in control after a period of steady accumulation.

Health Care shed -$721M this week, with a buying pressure score of 36.9. Over three months it had attracted $2.5B. Like Utilities, it looks like profit-taking after a stronger run.

Asset Class and Strategy

Equities took in $43.6B this week. Fixed income added $19.9B. Both asset classes are seeing strong demand simultaneously, which does not point to a classic risk-on rotation away from bonds. Over three months, equities absorbed $517.9B and fixed income $300.3B. The ratio is holding steady.

Commodities lost -$1.9B this week after attracting $32.9B over three months. The weekly reversal is modest in size but notable as a pause in a strong trend.

On strategy, growth ETFs drew $4.2B this week with a buying pressure score of 82.3. Value ETFs lost -$1.7B, with a score of just 30.2. Over three months the picture was reversed: value had attracted $8.8B against growth's $17.4B. The weekly shift toward growth and away from value is sharp.

Active ETFs continued to gather assets, adding $3.2B this week and $160.1B over three months. That three-month figure is the second-largest of any strategy category and reflects a sustained structural shift toward active management within the ETF wrapper. Retail attention in options-income strategies has also been elevated: Wikipedia page-view data shows the Goldman Sachs S&P 500 Premium Income ETF (GPIX) hit 10.0 standard deviations above its own history in the week to 21 October, suggesting unusually high retail interest in income-generating equity strategies at a time when vanilla and growth flows dominate.

The overall tone is risk-on but selective. Equity and growth strategies are drawing fresh money. Bonds are holding their own. Commodities and defensive sectors are giving back recent gains. China is the clearest geographic bet of the week.