To The Moon

After a downbeat September, October, too, remained depressed for Wall Street. High oil and gas prices, still-high inflation, and the Fed’s policy tightening spree, along with the resultant rise in bond yields, kept the market volatile. The S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq have lost 2.8%, 1.5% and 3.9% in the past month (as of October 30, 2023) due to rising rate worries. U.S. benchmark treasury yield started the month at 4.69%, reached a high of 4.98% on Oct 19 and was at 4.88% on Oct 30. Apart from higher rates, there was heightened geopolitical crisis due to the war between Israel and the Gaza-based militant group Hamas. This has sent oil prices higher. Meanwhile, the U.S. GDP data for Q3 came in upbeat. The United States witnessed substantial economic growth in the third quarter of 2023, with the real gross domestic product (GDP) growing at an annual rate of 4.9%, beating economists’ expectations of 4.7%. Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few ETF areas that fetched sizable assets and that saw huge outflows in the month of October. S&P 500 ETFs Win iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VOO) amassed about $15.13 billion and $2.88 billion in October, respectively. Cheaper valuation probably lured investors to focus on the S&P 500 ETFs. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) also fetched about $2.04 billion in assets in the month. Treasury ETFs Top Too SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) , iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) , Vanguard Intermediate-Term Treasury Index Fund (VGIT) and iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF SGOV have gathered assets worth $4.83 billion, $3.87 billion, $3.21 billion and $1.88 billion respectively, in the month. Investors should note that short-term treasury bond ETFs offer decent yields, which caused them to be investors’ darlings. Energy Caught Attention Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) hauled in about $1.89 billion in assets. The Israel-Gaza war and its perceived ripple effects in the Middle East occasionally sent oil prices soaring in October. This has probably boosted investors’ interest in energy ETFs like XLE. Corporate Bonds Bleed iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) , Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund (VCIT) ,Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund (VCSH) witnessed assets worth $3.0 billion, $2.55 billion and $1.84 billion, respectively, gushing out of the funds. Since safer treasuries are yielding handsomely, investors probably dumped riskier corporate bond ETFs. Emerging Markets Out of Investors’ Favor Emerging markets ETFs iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) , iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF (EMB) shed assets worth $2.37 billion and $1.67 billion, respectively, in October. A surge in U.S. treasury bond yields caused investors less-interested in emerging markets products. The chances of high-for-longer interest rates in the United States (due to resilience in the economy and sticky inflation) kept the U.S. dollar steady in the month, which was another negative for the emerging markets bloc. Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. $标普500指数ETF(IVV)$ $Vanguard标普500ETF(VOO)$ $大盘指数ETF-Vanguard MSCI(VTI)$ $债券指数ETF-SPDR Barclays美国1-3月国债(BIL)$ $债券20+美公债指数ETF-iShares(TLT)$ $Vanguard Intermediate-Term Government Bond Index Fund ETF Shares(VGIT)$ $SPDR能源指数ETF(XLE)$