Todd Rosenbluth

At the start of each new year, there are regular predictions that international equity markets will outperform U.S. large-cap ones.

Doing anything consistently for 20 or more consecutive years is hard to imagine. Yet, 69 companies in the S&P 500 Index and 149 companies in the S&P 1500 indexes have a two-decades long ongoing streak for hiking their dividends annually. Nearly two dozen companies recently joined an elite club known as the dividend aristocrats.

An actively managed fund hitting its three year track record used to be a major milestone. A Morningstar rating would follow. If the star rating was strong, inflows would usually manifest. However, the growing demand for young active ETFs has proven that some investors are not waiting for a magic anniversary to invest. Capital Group has many such $1 billion ETF examples to support this. The firm’s active ETF business turned three years old this week, with $57 billion in assets.

At the end of January 2025, $7 trillion was invested in money market funds, according to the Investment Company Institute. Some of this cash has been on the sidelines waiting for a better time to return to the bond market. Now might be that time. Here are three reasons:

The BlackRock Target Allocation team further embraced active ETFs at the end of February. The team runs model portfolios for advisors worth we believe approximately $150 billion. A number of ETFs are typically bought or sold to support the models’ objectives and respond to the market environment. However, this time there were three notable additions: the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), the iShares U.S. Thematic Rotation Active ETF (THRO), and the

After a record year for fixed income ETFs in 2024, demand has been even stronger to start 2025. U.S. listed fixed income ETFs pulled in $78 billion in the first two months. This puts the industry on pace to exceed the just-over $300 billion gathered last year. Investors are turning to ultra-short bond ETFs, the safest fixed income ETFs available.

State Street Global Advisors, which launched the first U.S.-listed ETF more than 30 years ago, continues to innovate. Today it expanded its lineup to include a global multi-asset allocation ETF. Preeminent hedge fund Bridgewater Associates actively managing the fund makes it special. The SPDR Bridgewater All Weather ETF (ALLW) provides access to two strong asset management brands in a liquid, accessible ETFs wrapper.

In two weeks, the Exchange conference will be underway and I could not be more excited. We have more than 120 industry partners and more than 1,660 registered attendees. Advisors, there’s room for you to still register — use code JACKPOT100.

Three years after successfully launching its first ETFs, Capital Group has positioned itself for further growth. The firm announced today the rollout of eight ETF models portfolios. Advisors who work with third-party firms like AssetMark and Envestnet should soon have access to them.

During the first week of March, fixed income ETFs gathered more money than equity products. While not rare, this is a sign of uncertainty in the markets. With on-again-off-again-on-again tariffs, many were turning to the relative safety of fixed income ETFs. In the subsequent days, demand for equity ETFs recovered. As of March 13, equity ETFs pulled in $22 billion for the month compared to $13 billion for fixed income products.