Decline in Global ETF Assets Despite Stable Inflows

In October, global ETF assets experienced a slight decline to $14.41 trillion, after reaching a record high of $14.46 trillion in September. Although the industry continued to experience strong inflows, a market downturn led to this slight decrease, as revealed by a new report from ETFGI. Among other factors, the S&P 500 fell by about 1%, while developed markets excluding the U.S. dropped by 5.2% and emerging markets by 3.7%. Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI, explained the reasons for the asset loss to etf.com. Nonetheless, the ETF industry has now experienced 65 consecutive months of net inflows, with all types of investors preferring ETFs for various needs. In October, the ETF industry recorded net inflows of $211.4 billion, according to the ETFGI report. This brings the year-to-date inflows to $1.45 trillion, significantly surpassing the previous annual record of $1.04 trillion set in 2021. Equity ETFs led the development with inflows of $110.6 billion in October, increasing their year-to-date total to $806.7 billion—more than double the $323.6 billion in the same period in 2023. Meanwhile, bond ETFs attracted $35.4 billion in October, and actively managed ETFs saw inflows of $47.7 billion. Active ETFs have so far gathered $287.9 billion for the year, compared to $133 billion the previous year. Commodity ETFs achieved inflows of $6.8 billion in October, raising their year-to-date total to $7.9 billion—a reversal from $13.5 billion in outflows during the same period last year. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) recorded the highest inflows among individual funds in October with $14.4 billion, followed by the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) with $10.5 billion. The global ETF industry now comprises 12,994 products from 791 providers, listed on 81 exchanges across 63 countries, according to the report. This represents moderate growth compared to September, when 12,843 products from 781 providers were available.