Bond, commodity, and equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs) received $43.0 billion in July, their biggest monthly inflow since December 2014, when these funds hauled in $50.7 billion, according to TrimTabs Investment Research.
It’s a sign that “market participants are as confident as ever that central bank intervention will keep inflating asset prices,” said David Santschi, CEO at TrimTabs. “The only major asset class with significant outflows last month was European equities.”
July’s inflow into ETFs was equal to almost half of the year-to-date inflow of $103.2 billion, TrimTabs reported. U.S. equity ETFs alone took in $27.9 billion, equal to 2.0% of their assets, the biggest monthly inflow since December 2014.
Going against the trend, Europe-focused equity ETFs shed a record $4.5 billion, equal to 10.5% of their assets.
“Several of the riskiest areas of the market, including emerging markets stocks and foreign bonds, had massive inflows,” said Santschi, in the TrimTabs release. “Such enthusiasm is a cautionary sign from a contrarian perspective.”
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