U.S.-listed ETFs locked in a record-breaking first half of the year. Read the analysis on active ETFs, fixed income shifts, and equity flows.
Markets may have ended the first quarter with a thud, but stocks put another record run in the books to close out the first half of 2026. The U.S. ETF market had already shattered records, crossing the $15 trillion threshold and cruising past $1 trillion in net inflows right before summer officially began.
It’s been a long time coming for the asset management world, but ETF share classes are now a reality. Fidelity Investments has joined that movement, with the launch of its first ETF share classes for some of its mutual funds.
As growth stumbled, the S&P 500 Momentum Index captures a 7.5% gain in June and a 44% gain in the second quarter.
Benchmarks are broken. That was the premise established in a conversation with Samarth Sanghavi, head of fixed income index product at TMX VettaFi, when the problem was first addressed in a previous article. TMX VettaFi creates innovative index solutions, and with the premise established that benchmarks are indeed broken, here is the fix.
The ETF ecosystem is always changing and growing. Thanks to the ETF’s flexibility, transparency, and tradability, it can help investors achieve plenty of bespoke goals. That even includes investing with an eye towards philanthropic causes as with philanthropic ETFs ASD and DUTY.
Markets have been hyper-focused on AI, crypto and buffer ETFs, but REIT ETFs have quietly staged an impressive comeback. The REIT terrain has shifted rapidly over recent years, and forward-looking investors and advisors have taken notice.
During the past month, the ETF market has seen a wave of excitement surrounding a concentrated group of companies. While investors still want exposure to the tech giants that have dominated the past few years, the successful launch of SpaceX in early June created widespread anticipation for planned IPOs like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Investors now have more optionality when looking for Nasdaq 100 exposure. State Street Investment Management (SSIM) just launched the State Street SPDR Portfolio Nasdaq 100 ETF (QNDX). It will invariably go heads up with the Qs, namely the Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ) and the Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF (QQQM).
The ETF landscape includes plenty of exciting ETFs. Not all, however, can claim to combine high current income and outperformance. The ProShares Russell 2000 High Income ETF (ITWO) has done just that so far this year with its innovative approach to covered calls.
VettaFi currently has index products tied to ETFs issued by American Century, Victory Capital, and ALPS ETFs, but the addition of RAFI products issued by Invesco and PIMCO that are fundamentally weighted is really exciting, according to Rosenbluth.
Join the industry’s leading strategists for the Midyear Market Outlook Symposium—a comprehensive briefing designed to help advisors audit their current allocations and prepare for the opportunities of the next six months
The international ETF landscape has become quite popular with investors over the last year. Investors flocked to ex-U.S. equity opportunities over the last 12 months, driven by high domestic valuations and persistent concentration risk. By contrast, emerging and international markets have both offered lower costs and healthy diversification.
In broad terms, there appears to be little headline risk facing advisors and income investors mulling municipal bonds. All 50 states carry investment-grade credit ratings, confirming that their credit quality remains solid.
THOR builds upon the success of the firm’s Thornburg Investment Income Builder Strategy, bringing that same income generation expertise into a flexible, actively managed ETF.
While the market-cap methodology has been the guiding principle for equity index creators, it’s increasingly viewed as a structural error in the world of fixed income. Today, TMX VettaFi is helping to spearhead a growing movement of index innovators who are inclined to challenge the fixed income status quo.
The fixed income environment continues to project uncertainty, as higher-for-longer interest rates persist amid sticky inflation. Investors may want to lean on the expertise of active managers when deciding between an active and indexed fund.
A real, potentially lasting U.S.-Iran deal appears to be on the horizon for the first time in many weeks of on-, then off-again negotiations. Should this be the deal that does it, or another one in the near term, oil prices will respond. In fact, they’ve already dropped in response to the news that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.
Humanoid robots grab headlines, but they are just a fraction of the physical AI ecosystem. Autonomous robots, drones, cobots, and eVTOLs are rapidly scaling across industrial and defense sectors.
Discover why DoubleLine's Jeffrey Gundlach is urging a structural defensive rotation into emerging markets and international assets.
The emergence of leveraged ETFs tied to Space Exploration Technologies (more familiarly known as SpaceX) points to strong investor demand for concentrated exposure.
Investors have plenty of reasons to celebrate the covered call ETF boom. Covered call strategies have offered new ways to add income to portfolios. Challenges in fixed income were a catalyst for assets to flow into traditional covered call ETFs.
Exposure to critical minerals, specifically rare earths, provides an opportunity for investors to capitalize on growth and diversify their portfolios simultaneously. However, there are also geopolitical implications that investors should know about as well. In particular, more nations are reducing their reliance on China.
Higher-for-longer interest rates and ongoing geopolitical friction make navigating emerging markets (EM) and capturing their growth potential a trying task. This is where investors can shift the onus of EM investing to experienced portfolio managers, with an active fund such as the Fidelity Fundamental Emerging Markets ETF (FFEM).
Participate in artificial intelligence (AI) investing long enough and you’re apt to hear plenty about this disruptive technology’s substantial power demands. Market participants know the anecdotes. For instance, some data centers consume more power than states. Another one: Data centers in aggregate consume more power than nearly all of the world’s countries.
This week J.P. Morgan Asset Management launched two actively managed municipal bond ETFs focused on California and New York debt, offering investors a way to earn tax-free income inside a more flexible and transparent fund structure.
On Monday, June 15, Guggenheim Investments debuted a pair of new fixed income ETFs. Each of these new funds offers an active take on the fixed income space. This may help investors looking to amplify portfolio yield.
J.P. Morgan converted two mutual funds into active muni ETFs for California and New York investors seeking tax-free income.
Advisors searching for diversification from a concentrated S&P 500 Index often reach for equal-weight strategies. However, a new report argues that all equal-weight approaches are not interchangeable.
Several ETFs have added exposure to Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX) after the aerospace giant completed the largest initial public offering in market history. Trading on the Nasdaq, SpaceX surged 19% from its initial $135 offering price to close at $160.95 per share, notching a historic $2.1 trillion valuation. Actively managed ETF vehicles were able to use their operational flexibility to add positions in SpaceX at its debut.
VettaFi’s core mission is to provide the index and distribution solutions that help asset managers build, grow, and navigate the markets with precision. Last week we took a massive, transformational step forward. TMX VettaFi signed a definitive agreement to acquire RAFI Indices from Research Affiliates, the undisputed pioneer of fundamental indexing and smart beta strategies.
Given all the interest and hype over the SpaceX IPO, many advisors and investors have been increasingly gravitating towards thematic ETFs that focus on the space industry. Given that the SpaceX IPO is the largest IPO in history, this should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Discover how Capital Group’s active CGGR ETF navigates this mega-cap divergence to uncover secular growth beyond tech.
Goldman Sachs and Innovator panelists say buffer ETFs can help advisors move cash-shy clients into stocks with built-in downside limits.
The ETF industry has reached a historic turning point. Vanguard has officially surpassed BlackRock’s iShares to become the largest ETF provider. The milestone underscores a broader structural shift among investors prioritizing low-cost investments in portfolio allocations.
At a time when the cost of living is rising and market volatility appears to be rising, too, investors may be looking for current income to bolster their portfolios. Current income can especially help investors at or near retirement to adapt to retired life.
Inflation and geopolitical uncertainty are pushing advisors and investors to rethink how they build diversified portfolios.
May saw 148 new ETF launches in May alone – although launch figures were partially driven by a 37-fund rollout from Corgi Insurance Services.
Building resilient portfolios in markets delivering mixed messages can be a challenging affair. In our ongoing engagement with the retail and advisor community at VettaFi, we hear first-hand just how investors are tackling that challenge this year.
Markets have treated AI as a gold rush of LLMs, chips and cloud applications, but as the industry shifts from chatbots to agentic systems — AI that autonomously runs workflows and makes decisions — hyperscalers are now facing a brutal physical bottleneck.
It’s no secret that investors are on the lookout for opportunities in their fixed income portfolios. This is especially true in today’s shifting landscape. Equities are hot, perhaps too hot, and many investors want strong performances out of their bonds in order to keep up.
Confirming that the bar is high for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor makers’ earnings reports, shares of Broadcom (AVGO) plunged 12.59% on June 4, a day after the chip giant delivered quarterly results. The results weren’t the problem. It was a lack of a positive update regarding AI semiconductor demand.
In my more than two decades covering index funds, I have never seen anything quite like the frenzy surrounding the SpaceX IPO. The sheer scale and market anticipation of this pending debut this week have done something rare. It has encouraged index providers to re-evaluate how they build and maintain benchmarks that are tracked by trillions of dollars.
On June 4, Vanguard launched the Vanguard U.S. High-Yield Corporate Bond Index ETF (VCHY) on the Cboe BZX. VCHY provides ultra-low-cost exposure to higher-yield U.S. corporate bonds. It comes with an expense ratio of just five basis points.
Bond ETFs secured a record $64 billion in monthly inflows, driving total fixed-income ETF assets above $2.5 trillion.
There are short duration bonds and corresponding ETFs. For advisors and fixed income investors who really want to minimize interest rate risk, there are ultra-short alternatives. Those products are worth considering this year.
The top-performing non-leveraged ETFs of 2026 span a distinct blend of digital assets, next-generation semiconductor technology, and localized international equity plays. For advisors assessing portfolio allocations heading into the second half of the year, these performance figures highlight a sustained risk-on appetite among investors.
The top-performing non-leveraged ETFs of 2026 span a distinct blend of digital assets and localized international equity plays.
The closed-end fund landscape may be seeing a big change as regulations may be shifting at the SEC, per recent announcements.
On Wednesday, June 3, Wellington Management and The Hartford announced that Wellington will be acquiring Hartford Funds. Once the acquisition is complete, Hartford Funds will operate under Wellington’s brand through the firm’s U.S. Wealth business.
