Five of yesterday’s top-performing ETFs were focused on fixed income, reflecting an exodus from equities into the relative safety of corporate and government bonds.

The Pimco 25+Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Bond Fund (NYSEArca: ZROZ) was the top beneficiary of the rush into bonds, returning 3.97 percent.

Long-term Treasury bond funds did particularly well yesterday as the yield on 10-year Treasury notes dropped to a record low of 1.62 percent, and investors appear to have discounted the possibility that the U.S. will have inflation anytime soon.

Other top-performing funds yesterday were short- and midterm volatility products such as the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Futures ETN (NYSEArca: VXX), which was No. 1 on the list, with 6.92 percent in returns.

Worst Performers

The Elements Credit Suisse Global Warning ETN (NYSEArca: GWO) was the worst-performing fund for the second straight day, with 11.63 percent in losses.

The ETN’s declines reinforce investor skepticism about the prospects for alternative energy in a period of slowing growth and falling oil prices.

GWO was one of a number of energy funds that took a hit yesterday, as the global slowdown has begun to eat into returns across a broad spectrum of energy related ETFs.

Other notable bottom performers were those affected by the eurozone’s debt woes.

They included the Wisdom Tree Euro Debt Fund (NYSEArca: EU), which suffered losses of 5.23 percent.

Also, the Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (NYSEArca: GREK), a repeat bottom performer in the past several weeks, fell 4.9 percent yesterday.

Top 10 1-Day Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded

Disclaimer: All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern time the date the article is published. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.