06/05/25 14:01:08

ETFs: “ex USA” products very popular

Hardly anyone wants the US equities that have long been extremely popular. Instead, they are betting on European stocks. Also very popular: gold mining ETFs and gold ETCs.


6. May 2025 FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). After the wave of selling and the subsequent balanced trading, buying clearly dominates the ETF business again. European equities remain particularly popular, while US equities are not well received. However, the volume of trading has declined. “We had almost twice as many buys as sells, but with reduced turnover,” reports Holger Heinrich, who trades ETFs for Baader Bank.

Although US equities have recently recovered significantly and made up for the April dip, the S&P 500 is still down 4 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Nasdaq 100 is down 5 percent. By contrast, the DAX - despite today's setback as a result of the failed chancellor election - is up 15 percent.

Europe rather than the USA

Heinrich continues to see a clear focus on European, but also world ETFs. “In Europe, equal weight products (IE000VDI16Q5) are in demand, as are variants of the MSCI Europe (IE00BKWQ0Q14, IE00BHZPJ783),” he explains. It is noticeable that products on the French CAC40 tend to be sold (LU1681046931). According to Ivo Orlemann from ICF Bank, classics such as the Deka DAX (DE000ETFL011) are popular, but also the Deka Stoxx Europe Strong Growth 20 (DE000ETFL037) with the 20 “purest” European growth companies. According to Leo Puschmann, Lang & Schwarz's trading-savvy clients rely on the L&G DAX Daily 2x Long (IE00B4QNHH68), which tracks the DAX with leverage of 2.

According to Heinrich, the favorites among the World ETFs are All Country (IE000VXC51U5) and “ex USA” products (IE000Z0FC0G5, IE00BN4Q0370). There is also a lot of focus on small caps. Orlemann mentions the Invesco MSCI World (IE00B60SX394) and the Deka MSCI World (DE000ETFL508). “Buying is dominating again,” he adds. As far as US equities are concerned, however, caution continues to prevail. “Investments are only being made in the major indices, i.e. the S&P 500 and MSCI USA,” notes Heinrich. More specialized products such as the iShares Edge S&P 500 Minimum Volatility (IE00BYX8XD24) are even being sold. At Lang & Schwarz, there is a lot of turnover in Nasdaq ETNs with triple leverage, long and short (IE00BLRPRL42, IE00BLRPRJ20).

Germany - top favorite instead of “hot potato”. 

The long-observed investment pressure eased significantly in April, as the ETF trading and analysis company Crossflow reports. “After the many record monthly net inflows, demand fell by almost 70 percent compared to the previous month,” it says. Crossflow nevertheless reports total inflows into equity ETFs in April (9 billion euros), albeit with high outflows from North American equities (4.2 billion euros), offset by inflows into ETFs investing globally (5.6 billion euros) and in Europe (6 billion euros). By country, Germany - long traded like a “hot potato”, as Crossflow writes - has now been the favorite since the beginning of the year with inflows of 5.5 billion euros. 

Focus on defense and tech stocks 

Trading in sector ETFs continues to focus on defense and tech stocks. According to Orlemann, WisdomTree Europe Defence (IE0002Y8CX98), which has been so popular for many weeks, is no longer quite as sought-after. “The Global X Defence Tech (IE000JCW3DZ3) and VanEck Defense (IE000YYE6WK5) are now more likely to be bought,” he notes. According to Puschmann, business is going both ways: “The big run on defense stocks seems to be over.” According to Puschmann, however, gold and uranium mining ETFs (IE00075IVKF9) are clearly popular.

Ivo Orlemann

Ivo Orlemann

Gold ETCs extremely popular

At USD 3,379 per troy ounce, the price of gold is currently not far off the record high of just under USD 3,490 reached two weeks ago. According to traders, trading in gold and silver ETCs is therefore also extremely busy. Purchases clearly predominated. Particularly high turnover at Lang & Schwarz: iShares Physical Gold (IE00B4ND3602). At ICF, the Invesco Physical Gold (IE00B579F325) and its silver counterpart (IE00B43VDT70) as well as corresponding products from WisdomTree are very popular. Oil ETCs are also high-turnover, as Puschmann observes, often with leverage, such as the WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil 3x Daily Leveraged (IE00BMTM6B32).

Although Bitcoin has recovered significantly from its April low and is trading around USD 94,000 again, the crypto ETN business has “completely fallen asleep” according to Orlemann. “We are seeing little to no trading,” Puschmann also notes. If at all, it is ETNs on Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana.

By Anna-Maria Borse, 6. May 2025, Deutsche Börse AG ©

Anna-Maria Borse is a financial and business editor specializing in the financial market/stock exchange and economic topics.

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