Replies to post #333810 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

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Lol, Of course I did, I just hate the awful taste of Turnip Tea!<G>

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ETFs see $3 bln inflow last week
By John Spence, CBS MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 10:03 AM ET Dec. 13, 2004

BOSTON (CBS.MW) -- U.S. exchange-traded funds saw a torrent of cash on Friday for the second straight week, taking in $1.1 billion to cap off a $3 billion inflow for the week, according to data from TrimTabs Investment Research.

Last week represented the third-highest weekly total of the year after a $4.7 billion inflow in late June and a $3.6 tally in late November. In the previous week, inflows totaled $774 million.

More speculative growth ETFs lagged the pack, with the $22 billion Nasdaq-100 Cubes (QQQQ: news, chart, profile) barely managing net inflows for the week. The tech-heavy Cubes were down 0.6 percent for the week ending Dec. 10.

U.S. small-cap and international funds took the lion's share of new investor cash "despite noticeably lagging in performance," TrimTabs said.

The small-cap iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM: news, chart, profile) was down 1.5 percent for the week, while the broad international iShares MSCI EAFE (Europe Australia Far East) lost 2.7 percent. The S&P 500 SPDRs (SPY: news, chart, profile) shed 0.2 percent over the same period.

Certain sectors fell out of favor with ETF investors, as they pulled $179 million from utilities funds and $115 million from ETFs investing in financials stocks. Almost all of these sector withdrawals were shouldered by two funds in State Street Global Advisors' stable of industry-specific ETFs: Utilities Select Sector SPDRs (XLU: news, chart, profile) and Financial Select Sector SPDRs (XLF: news, chart, profile).

Utilities SPDRs were down 0.1 percent last week, while Financial SPDRs were essentially flat.

Among individual ETFs, the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI: news, chart, profile) and the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate (IYR: news, chart, profile) both increased assets by about 25 percent.

The China ETF lost 4.3 percent for the week ended Dec. 10, and the real estate iShare gained 1 percent.

The brand-new StreetTracks Gold Trust (GLD: news, chart, profile) lost 12 percent of its assets due to investor outflows as the price of gold retreated last week after hitting 16-year highs. The gold ETF was down 4 percent for the week, TrimTabs reported.