ETFs see historic July according to State Street

It’s a July for the record books.

State Street Global Advisors finds inflows into exchange-traded funds hit $127 billion. Not only was it the best July ever, but the firm’s head of SPDR Americas research notes it is also the second-largest monthly inflow ever.

“Part of it is just the market,” Matt Bartolini told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” on Thursday. “We see investors deploy cash from the sidelines. A lot of cash was built up over the years. We started to see investors really make a concerted effort to continue to buy into this rally. We also saw sort of broadening in the market depth in terms of rotation take place.”

Bartolini also points to a narrowing spread between growth and value-oriented ETFs.

“It’s not so heliocentric towards tech,” he said.

First trillion-dollar year for ETF industry?

BTIG’s Troy Donohue thinks ETFs are pacing for a major milestone by the end of the year, as long as the macro factors of the election season don’t make investors too hesitant.

“It’s been a great start to the year,” said Donohue, BTIG’s head of Americas portfolio trading. “[It] could be the first trillion-dollar year that the ETF industry has.”