The first half of the year has seen a turnaround in the fortunes of many global assets, as fears of a global trade war and concerns over the political future of the Eurozone dominated the news pages and affected sentiment for European assets.
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A clear cautious approach can be seen in the behaviour of ETF investors in recent weeks, with flows for the latest month showing a preference for European (and global) bonds over equities.
Bond ETFs attract record inflows as investors spooked by equity uncertainty.
Exchange-traded fund assets are anticipated to reach $7.6 trillion by 2020 thanks to upcoming regulations and an increased number of participants, according to new research.
Equity and bond ETFs in the US barely reacted to two big pieces of market news over the last week, although industry experts have pointed to possible movement of municipal bond ETFs.
Bond ETFs have enjoyed massive popularity over the past few years and total assets now already stand at $750bn, but BlackRock is predicting this figure could double by 2022 as demand continues to grow.