ETF Inflows in January 2026
Investors contributed $165.4 billion to U.S.-listed ETFs in January 2026, as per data from FactSet. Although this was a drop from December’s remarkable $225 billion, it still showed a significant increase from the $107 billion collected in January of the previous year.
One of the most interesting changes this month was where the money flowed.
International stock ETFs led the inflow charts, bringing in $68.2 billion, which was notably higher than the $42.7 billion that went into U.S. stock ETFs. This shift stems from international stocks outperforming their U.S. counterparts last year and continuing this trend into early 2026.
The iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) emerged as a favorite among investors, attracting $8.8 billion in January. Remarkably, it’s up 8.3% since the year’s start, almost quadrupling the gains of the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which only saw a 2.2% increase.
That said, VOO is still the overall leader, raising $16.3 billion in January alone, more than any other fund.
Bond ETFs also maintained a solid level of interest, with U.S. bond ETFs seeing $36.6 billion in inflows while foreign bond ETFs collected $15.6 billion. However, the excitement around bonds seems muted. With the Federal Reserve holding interest rates steady, returns on bonds are slowing. The Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) and Vanguard Medium Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCIT)—both popular choices—are each up about 0.2% so far this year.
Commodity ETFs attracted $4.3 billion in January, primarily driven by interest in gold. Strangely, no gold ETFs made it to the top 10 this month, yet the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) managed to gather $2.6 billion in inflows for the year.
In contrast, the story for silver was quite different. Despite a strong rally for silver at the year’s start, investors pulled back, selling off silver ETFs. The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) lost $2.9 billion in January, concluding with one of its largest single-day declines in history.
Long-term government bonds also seem to be losing their appeal; the iShares 20+ Years Government Bond ETF (TLT) faced an outflow of $2.2 billion.
Another noteworthy player was the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP), which reported a solid $4.4 billion in inflows for January. Throughout 2026, small-cap stocks have generally outperformed large-cap stocks, benefiting equal weight strategies like RSP, which is up 3.8% since the beginning of the year, nearly twice the gain of the market-cap weighted S&P 500 tracked by VOO.
For a complete list of the top ETF inflows and outflows for January, refer to the table below.
