Exchange-traded funds and products listed in the U.S. gathered net flows of $275 billion in the first seven months of this year, just shy of the $279 billion of net inflows in all of 2016, according to ETFGI, a research and consultancy firm.
Industry inflows globally did even better, hitting a record $391 billion in the first seven months of the year, $1 billion more than inflows invested in all of 2016. The global sector has now had 41 uninterrupted months of net inflows.
At the end of July, the U.S industry had 2,038 ETFs/ETPs, with 2,038 listings, assets of $3.1 billion, from 114 providers listed on three exchanges, ETFGI reported.
Net inflows in July totaled $28 billion, marking the 17th consecutive month of positive net new asset flows.
"Most equity markets continued to see gains in July," Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI, said in a statement. "The S&P 500 gained 2% with telecom and info tech the top performing sectors, up 6% and 4%, respectively. International equities, and especially emerging markets, were up 3% and 6%, respectively."
Fuhr noted that investors remained focused on political risks: the Trump administration's ability to move forward on policy goals, hearings on Capitol Hill, Brexit negotiations and North Korea.
Equity funds and products had net inflows of $20.5 billion in July, bringing year-to-date net inflows to $194.7 billion, compared with just $30.3 billion over the same period last year and $173.2 billion gathered in all of 2016.
Fixed income funds experienced net inflows of $73 billion in the January-to-July period, up from $54 billion in the first seven months of last year.
Commodity funds and products saw net outflows of $3.4 billion for the year to date, compared with net inflows of $19.8 billion gathered over the same period last year.
