$165B Pours Into ETFs in January as Investors Look Overseas

Core Insights - Investors added $165.4 billion to U.S.-listed ETFs in January 2026, a decrease from December's record but still significantly higher than January 2025's $107 billion [1] Group 1: ETF Inflows - International equity ETFs led the inflow rankings with $68.2 billion, surpassing the $42.7 billion that flowed into U.S. equity ETFs [2] - The iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) attracted $8.8 billion in January, with a year-to-date gain of 8.3%, compared to a 2.2% gain for the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) [3] - VOO remains the most popular ETF overall, gathering $16.3 billion in January [3] Group 2: Fixed Income ETFs - U.S. fixed income ETFs saw inflows of $36.6 billion, while international fixed income ETFs attracted $15.6 billion [4] - Bond performance has been muted, with the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) and the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCIT) both up about 0.2% year to date [4] Group 3: Commodity ETFs - Commodity ETFs pulled in $4.3 billion in January, primarily due to demand for gold, with the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) gathering $2.6 billion in inflows [5] - In contrast, silver ETFs faced significant outflows, with the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) losing $2.9 billion in January [6] Group 4: Smaller Stocks - The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) gained $4.4 billion in January, benefiting from the outperformance of smaller stocks over large caps in 2026 [7] - RSP is up 3.8% year to date, nearly double the gain of the market-cap-weighted S&P 500 tracked by VOO [7]