ETF Assets Hit Record With Huge November Inflows

ETF.com reported that SPDR S&P 500 ETF brought in more than $10 billion in fresh assets last month, making it the single most popular fund. U.S. equities in total pulled in nearly $33 billion.

International equities attracted almost $8 billion in November. Two WisdomTree currency-hedged strategies accounted for nearly a third of those flows.

WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund added $1.3 billion in new assets, bringing its month-end total to $12.6 billion, while WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund pulled in $1.2 billion, raising its total to $4.6 billion.

At a time when bond flows have been volatile, November's least-popular fund was iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF, which gave up more than a quarter of its assets, $3.5 billion. 

SPDR Gold Shares, the world's biggest gold bullion ETF, hemorrhaged $870 million last month—quite a comedown from August 2011 when it was the world's biggest ETF amid global anxiety following Standard & Poor's unprecedented downgrade of U.S. debt and signs the Eurozone's economic challenges were deepening. 

Since then, strength in equity markets and an absence of inflationary pressure have hurt gold prices and the popularity of ETFs such as this fund.