(Bloomberg) – To those looking to blame exchange-traded funds for the market correction earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says they're mostly innocent.

"We looked carefully to try to understand really what did happen and it seems the markets were generally orderly through almost all of that time," Powell said during testimony to Congress Tuesday. "ETFs are a particular form of fund and I don't think they were particularly at the heart of what went on on those days." 

The correction in the S&P 500 Index and the spike in the Cboe Volatility Index in early February lead to a blowup of ETF  products linked to the fear gauge. This caused some investors to point to the $3.6 trillion U.S. market as one of the instigators. However, plain vanilla ETFs such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, known by its ticker SPY, traded as expected.

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

  • Critical BenefitsPRO information including cutting edge post-reform success strategies, access to educational webcasts and videos, resources from industry leaders, and informative Newsletters.
  • Exclusive discounts on ALM, BenefitsPRO magazine and BenefitsPRO.com events
  • Access to other award-winning ALM websites including ThinkAdvisor.com and Law.com
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.