Investors Buy the Dip in Chip ETFs as Inflows Top $44B

Investors put $44.1 billion to work in US-listed ETFs during the week ending Friday, Oct. 23. That brought year-to-date inflows to $1.69 trillion.

It was a down week for stocks, with both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100 slipping less than 1%.

The sustainability of the AI trade remained top of mind for investors. Meta shares fell sharply on Thursday despite reporting better-than-expected revenue, as attention turned to how much the company is spending on AI infrastructure, and concerns about the cost of financing the AI buildout weighed on tech more broadly.

Despite those worries, the broader market has held up relatively well. The S&P 500 ended Friday down 2.5% from its all-time high. Tech has been hit harder, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 down more than 7% from its peak, though still short of correction territory.

By asset class, about half of last week’s inflows went into US equity ETFs, which took in $20.8 billion. US fixed income ETFs added $12.7 billion and international equity ETFs $7.1 billion, while commodity ETFs shed $1.7 billion.

Buying the Chip Dip

Among individual ETFs, last week was all about buying the dip in chip stocks.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) took in $5.4 billion, the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL) had inflows of $3.1 billion and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) added $2.5 billion. The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq-100, also gathered $2.7 billion.

A notable non-AI name in the top 10 was the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ex China ETF (EMXC), which picked up $1.5 billion. The fund has outperformed this year with a 26.2% gain, more than double the 12.8% return of the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG), which includes Chinese stocks.

Small Caps and Gold See Outflows

On the outflows side of the ledger, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) lost $2.4 billion and the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) shed $2.3 billion.

IWM and S&P 500 ETFs like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) are neck and neck this year, each up about 13%. Small caps were well ahead earlier in the year, but the gap has since closed. We’ll see who comes out ahead by year-end.

Gold, meanwhile, is back near its lows of the year, around $4,000 an ounce, after bouncing over the summer. Prices peaked above $5,500 in late January after a stunning rally and have been consolidating since.

For a full list of last week’s top inflows and outflows, see the tables below.

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)