Largest Bank ETF Bled Cash Leading Up to the Fed Meeting
- Traders pulled $689 million from the fund, most since January
- Despite July rally, bank stocks ‘still have a lot to prove’
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A strong performance by banks last month didn’t stop investors from yanking cash from the largest exchange-traded fund tracking U.S. financial institutions.
State Street Corp.’s Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund, known as XLF, had $689 million of outflows Tuesday, the most since January. The fund is basically flat for the year, mirroring the performance of banks in the S&P 500 Index, but it’s down almost 5 percent from its 2018 high, reached in January. So heading into Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, investors may have felt skittish about holding the ETF.