U.S. exchange-traded funds collectively bled $4.3 billion in April 2022, marking their first month of outflows since August 2019. Stock ETFs--whose strong showing in 2021 powered a new annual flows record for ETFs--saw a $19.2 billion exodus in April, and tame inflows for fixed-income and commodities funds weren't enough to push overall ETF flows into positive territory.Investors lost confidence in the market's resiliency after a tough start to the year. The Morningstar Global Markets Index, a broad gauge of global equities, slid 7.88% in April, marking its worst month since March 2020. Meanwhile, bonds continued to reel. The Morningstar US Core Bond Index, which tracks U.S. government bonds and investment-grade corporate debt, retreated another 3.67% in April. The bond benchmark has posted losses each month this year, which hav… Full Story

The exchange-traded fund boom showed no sign of letting up in 2021 as a  Investors , an almost 80% increase from the prior all-time high set in 2020. That included $24.4 billion directed to 480 new ETFs, topping the previous record of 329 new launches in 2020.As Ben Johnson, Morningstar’s global director of ETF research, puts it: “Record flows, record launches, a record number of new entrants, and all underscore the fact that ETFs have become the preferred investment wrapper for a large and growing number of investors.”The first six funds to offer exposure to Bitcoin hit the market, with ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF BITO .But bitcoin is only part of the story. Horizon Kinetics' first ETF caught on with investors worried about inflation. The company’s Inflation Beneficiaries ETF INFL had … Full Story