Bond flows spiked in August: BlackRock
BlackRock writes that global ETP flows hit USD238.2 billion in August, down from the record USD365.1 billion in July, driven by a fall in equity buying from USD290.3 billion to USD130.7 billion.
However, fixed income buying rose for the first time in three months (USD78.8 billion), due largely to a pickup in US-listed flows, while commodity buying quadrupled to USD20.7 billion.
Second-highest FI month on record – Fixed income flows rise, driven by US-listed buying, with contrasting regional credit flows.
Commodity buying quadruples – Inflows into commodities spiked across all listing regions, driven by a surge in gold buying.
Selectivity in equity – While overall equity flows fell, certain exposures, such as European equities, continued to gather assets.
Second-highest FI month on record
Fixed income flows bucked the headline trend, rising to USD78.8 billion – the second-highest month on record, behind May 2026 (USD87.5 billion). This was driven by a pickup in US-listed flows (USD58.0 billion), while EMEA-listed buying moderated to USD8.1 billion.
Within US-listed buying, rates ETP flows rose to USD15.7 billion – 98 per cent (USD15.4 billion) of this went into USTs. Multi-sector exposures took the bulk of the rest of the flow (USD22.4 billion). Consistent investment grade (IG) credit buying (USD4.3 billion) offset a fall in high yield (HY) flows, which were flat.
Rates ETPs remained popular in EMEA-listed flows as well, although in contrast to US listed trends, the split between USTs and other rates exposures was more even. USTs accounted for 61 per cent of the USD3.1 billion added to EMEA-listed rates ETPs, versus 98 per cent of US listed rates inflows. In credit, flows into EMEA-listed ETPs contrasted with US-listed peers: HY buying remained consistent (USD0.4B), with a slight fall in IG inflows (USD1.9 billion).
At the global level, the increase in rates flows to USD19.0 billion in August was driven by buying in short-term (USD19.9 billion), and long-term (USD7.6 billion) exposures, while net flows into intermediate term ETPs turned negative for the first time since June 2025.
Commodity flows quadruple
Global flows into commodity ETPs hit USD20.7 billion in August, BlackRock writes. This was more than 4x July flows and followed a lacklustre few months for the asset class: as of the end of July, just USD11.2 billion had been added in 2026.
Of the now USD31.9 billion of commodity inflows YTD, USD23.5 billion has gone into gold ETPs, including USD17.8 billion in August alone. This comes at a time when gold’s relative attractiveness as a geopolitical hedge has picked up, the firm says.
The pickup in flows into commodities – and, within that, gold – spanned listing regions: US-listed commodity flows rose from USD0.2 billion in July to USD8.3 billion in August, EMEA-listed flows increased from USD1.8 billion to USD7.5 billion, and APAC from USD0.9 billion to USD2.2 billion.
Selectivity in equity
While overall US equity flows fell from USD108.6 billion to USD89.2 billion in August, this masked a pickup in broad large-cap US equity flows to USD61.7 billion. Some of the decrease stemmed from weaker demand for certain US sectors: flows into US financials ETPs flipped from USD4.2 billion in July to -USD5.0 billion in August, while US tech ETPs fell from a bumper USD17.9 billion to -USD5.7 billion.
In contrast, European equity flows rose for a third consecutive month to USD5.6 billion – the highest since February, with the majority again going into broad European equity exposures.
The drop in buying of US tech ETPs contributed to overall global tech flows falling into negative territory for the first time this year (-USD3.7 billion in August). EMEA was the only listing region to register positive tech ETP flows (USD2.2 billion). Energy flows also turned negative for the second time in three months, with outflows across all listing regions, while financials ETPs only registered net inflows in EMEA. Global healthcare buying – which has been picking up – stuttered in August, with flat flows in EMEA and USD3.3 billion out of APAC listed ETPs, outweighing the USD2.2 billion added to US-listed exposures to leave the sector net negative in August.
EMEA snapshot
Flows into EMEA-listed ETPs moved in contrast to the global trend, rising to USD57.0 billion. This was driven by the aforementioned pickup in commodity flows (USD7.7 billion), with the majority going into gold ETPs. Under the surface, this increase in allocations comes after our portfolio analysis showed that from Q1 to Q2, the average moderate-risk European multi asset portfolio trimmed commodity exposure from 2 per cent to 1 per cent.
Also contrasting with the global trend, EMEA-listed fixed income flows moderated from USD12.1 billion to USD8.1 billion in August. This was driven by lower flows into broader sovereign rates (ex-US), slightly lower IG flows, outweighing a pickup in EMD flows from USD0.4 billion to USD0.6 billion.
EMEA-listed equity flows stayed consistent, at USD40.7 billion. A drop in US equity buying offset increased flows into European equity (USD4.7 billion), while EM equity flows slightly moderated from USD3.5 billion in July to USD3.0 billion in August.