It's the end of a wild first quarter for stock and bond investors, and ETF flows are reflecting that turmoil. The $7 trillion ETF business has become a barometer for investor sentiment. The good news: Despite big market swings, equity and bond ETFs still saw overall inflows in the first quarter. The bad news: The inflows are far smaller than in recent years, as some investors were parking enormous amounts of cash in other investments like money market funds toward the end of March. One big winner in the first quarter: Treasury bond ETFs saw huge inflows, yet corporate bond ETFs saw big outflows. Another big winner: International funds had big inflows as investors worried about a U.S. recession and a lower dollar re-allocated money overseas. How is the ETF investing landscape changing? Join us Monday on ETF Edge at 1:10 pm ET – when our guests will be D.J. Tierney, Director and Senior Investment Portfolio Strategist for Schwab Asset Management, and Nate Geraci, President of The ETF Store.
NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo to help launch new ESG ETF. Next week, Calamos Investments is teaming up with Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks to roll out their new Global Sustainable Equities ETF (SROI) – a global stock-based ETF that focuses on companies with strong ESG characteristics – which will trade on the NYSE. The investment adviser for SROI, Calamos Antetokounmpo Asset Management LLC, is structured as a joint venture and seeks to donate a portion of its profits to charities. "The principles of family, community, and economic empowerment are tremendously important to the Antetokounmpo family," Giannis said. "I'm excited to join with Calamos to bring an exchange traded fund to market that invests for growth, and to form a partnership that gives back to the community in a meaningful way." Top holdings will include Apple, Microsoft, Visa, Merck and Sony.
Speaking of ESG… There's been a growing chorus of concern among regulators about "greenwashing" – or the exaggeration of a company's environmental credentials/eco-friendliness. Overseas in Europe, where ESG has been part of the lexicon for far longer than it has here in the U.S., ratings agencies are cracking down on companies they feel have been too liberally given the ESG label. The FT reports that MSCI is pushing a massive overhaul, which will result in hundreds of funds being stripped of their ESG ratings, and thousands more being downgraded as a result. That means the number of European ETFs with a triple-A ESG rating from MSCI is set to tumble from 1,120 to just 54, while the number with no rating will surge from 24 to 462.
Meantime, in crypto news… In lieu of any spot crypto ETF arriving anytime soon, Bitwise Asset Management has just launched a new bitcoin-linked ETF designed specifically for long-term investors. The Bitwise Bitcoin Strategy Optimum Roll ETF (BITC) does not invest directly in the digital currency itself but provides directional exposure to bitcoin through regulated futures contracts – seeking to use an "optimum roll" strategy to analyze bitcoin futures contracts beyond just front- or near-month durations. Optimum roll has proven to be a popular strategy for oil and natural gas futures contracts.
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