Even ETF investors are reacting to Mister Market's recent pains ... at least equity ETF investors. Yet the industry still almost broke a first quarter inflows record.

ETF.com, State Street Global Advisors' (SSgA' [profile]) Matthew Bartolini, and MarketWatch (citing SSgA and FactSet data) all report that the U.S. ETF industry suffered net outflows again in March as the stock market shook, though the outflows did slow. It's the first time in ten years that ETFs in the U.S. have suffered net outflows for two months in a row.

Equity ETFs' woes dominated the overall numbers. In "Hitting the Banana Peel," SSgA's Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas research, estimates that ETFs suffered $1.7 billion in net outflows in March (down from $10 billion in February). Equity ETFs alone suffered an estimated $8.104 billion in net March outflows, and specialty ETFs suffered $127 million in net outflows. Yet, the other classes all saw net inflows: $5.374 billion into fixed income ETFs, $874 million into commodity ETFs, $166 million to mixed allocation ETFs, and $55 million into alternative ETFs.

There's lots more data to dig into, but one particularly interested tidbit is that, despite the pain of February and March, the U.S. ETF industry is still off to its second best first quarter ever with $66 billion in net inflows, thanks to a record $76 billion in net inflows in January. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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