Global investors poured a record $204.6 billion into exchange-traded products last month, with nearly three-quarters of that total going into soaring U.S. equity funds, BlackRock Inc.'s iShares unit said in a statement Wednesday.
U.S. equity funds pulled in $149.2 billion of the global total, beating the $145.9 billion record set last December. At the same time, fixed income inflows fell 30% to $35.1 billion from $49.9 billion in October, according to the survey from iShares, the world's biggest ETF issuer. Investors withdrew $3.6 billion from commodity funds, the first outflows since April.
Last month's inflows are setting 2024 up to be the biggest year ever for ETF flows, both in the U.S. and around the world, as the year's tech-led rally accelerated with the reelection of Donald Trump and his business-friendly administration. At the same time, investors have fled international markets due to Trump's threats to impose tariffs that are seen as hurting China, Mexico and Canada.
"The passing of the U.S. election and a clear result proved to be a catalyst for investor interest in US equities" according the report.
Globally, investors have bet $1.6 trillion so far this year on exchange-traded products including exchange-traded funds, already surpassing the record $1.3 trillion set in 2021. That's come as U.S. markets have jumped 28% this year, as measured by the S&P 500 tracking Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which by itself has pulled in $100 billion this year, about 6% of the global total.
Right after the Nov. 4 election, flows into U.S. stock ETFs jumped $143 billion, iShares said.
Fixed income flows reached a record $411.2 billion last month, the report stated. Commodities have struggled and total $1.8 billion so far this year, which iShares said will be their first year of inflows in four years.
Flows are somewhat tracking the pattern in 2016 when Trump was first elected, with small- and midcap funds attracting investments as well as financial ETFs, the report said.
"Investors look to have dusted off the 2016 playbook with their allocations -- small caps, mid caps and financials flows all picked up MoM, much like in November 2016," the authors wrote.