State Street: ETF assets dropped in February

Total assets in exchange traded funds fell $45 billion last month, to $451 billion, according to data released today by State Street Global Advisors of Boston. Much of the decline, however, was the result not of investors’ yanking cash out of ETFs, but of market depreciation. ETFs had $4.8 billion in net outflows for the month, compared with $2.2 billion in net inflows in January. Much of the outflows can be attributed to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF [SPY] from SSgA, which had $12 billion in outflows, according to Morningstar Inc. of Chicago. “There was a very conservative view taken in February which was very much about portfolio protection,” said Bradley Kay, an analyst at Morningstar. Just four new ETFs were launched last month, according to SSgA. And Chicago-based Northern Trust Global Investments exited the ETF management industry and closed all 17 of its funds, which had total assets of $29 million