ETFs see net outflows as investors sell bond funds

Exchange-traded funds had net outflows of $17.4 billion between March 4 and March 25. Fixed-income funds drove the bulk of the outflows as investors sold rising corporate rates. Equities, primarily U.S. equities, added $12 billion over the three-week period as double-digit declines presented attractive bargain opportunities.

In the bigger picture, overall flows to ETFs appeared to have reached a plateau this year amid 2020's coronavirus-fueled volatility, ending nearly two years of upward momentum. In the final four months of 2019, net ETF inflows averaged $45.4 billion per month, a trend that carried into January. That confidence, however, quickly waned as the reality of a global pandemic, and its economic fallout, shifted from theory to reality.

The Investment Company Institute estimated there were about $4.17 trillion in ETF assets as of Feb. 29. While that figure is up $451 billion from a year earlier, ETF assets fell $256.7 billion in February.