European investors committed a net €1.6bn to European equity ETFs as markets started pricing in an Emmanuel Macron victory in the French presidential elections, a stance vindicating by his convincing win over far-right Marine Le Pen in the second round of the ballot on 7 May. The iShares Euro Stoxx 50 ETF (+€0.7bn) accounted for almost half of the European equity inflows.
Whereas European equities were bought and US equities were sold off, the exact opposite was the case with bonds: USD corporate bond ETFs saw net inflows just shy of €1bn, while European corporate bond ETFs were the second most sold asset class after US equities, seeing net outflows of approximately €0.8bn.