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ETF Asset Flow of Last Week: S&P 500 Tops

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Last week was a record-breaking one for Wall Street. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones touched the 3,000 and 27,000 mark for the first time in history. Optimism surrounding Fed’s rate cut primarily drove the rally. Upbeat oil prices were another factor (read: 4 Reasons That Led Dow Jones to 27,000: ETFs in Focus).

Despite a solid jobs report for the month of June and signs of a trade truce between the United States and China, Fed chief Powell said, “uncertainties about the outlook have increased in recent months.” He indicated slowdown in several international economies, which has a spiraling effect on the U.S. economy. 

Needless to say, global markets as a whole were charged-up on cues of more months of cheap money inflow. The upbeat sentiments are sure to leave an impact on the asset flow as well. Investors are “all-in on equities,” said Steven DeSanctis, a U.S. stock strategist for Jefferies as big three S&P 500 ETFs raked in more than $6.2 billion last week.

Against this backdrop, we highlight the ETF asset flow of last week (read: 6 Top Leveraged ETFs of Last Week).

S&P 500 Wins All-Round

As mentioned above, the top three S&P 500 ETFs —SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY - Free Report) , iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV - Free Report) and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO - Free Report) — raked in about $4.44 billion, $1.18 billion and $815.6 million in assets, respectively. A record rally in the index drew all investors to these funds (read: S&P 500 Breaks Past 3,000: How to Trade With ETFs).

Mortgage-Backed Securities Win

iShares MBS ETF (MBB - Free Report) , which follows the Bloomberg Barclays US Mortgage Backed Securities Index,measures the performance of investment-grade mortgage-backed pass-through securities issued by the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, attracted about $601.4 million in assets. A drop in mortgage rates amid dovish Fed comments resulted in the massive asset flow.

Small-Caps Investors’ Favorite Too

Apart from the S&P 500, small-cap U.S. ETF iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM - Free Report) added about $506.4 million in assets. Also, the fund Vanguard Extended Market ETF (VXF - Free Report) — which follows the S&P Completion Index that contains all of the U.S. common stocks regularly traded on the NYSE and the Nasdaq over-the-counter market, except those included in the S&P 500 Index — hauled in $364.7 million of assets.

Consumer Discretionary Tops

Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY - Free Report) drew $305.1 million in assets. Shopping deals were announced by most major retailers ahead of Amazon’s (AMZN - Free Report) Prime Day. Other retailers are following the footsteps of this online retail giant to capture market share.Prime Day sales were roughly $4.19 billion in 2018 and will likely cross $5 billion and might even reach $6 billion this year, per marketingland.com. As a result, XLY added decent gains last week and gathered sizable assets (read: Consumer ETFs Win on Prime Day Becoming "Summer's Black Friday").

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