With equities slumping, ETF investors are pushing money into fixed income, commodities and more.

The numbers are striking.

On a percentage basis, through July 31, U.S. ETF assets were heavily weighted into equities. Here are the numbers from the National Stock Exchange.

But over the last year, cash flows—new money investors are putting to work in the space—have been very different. Here are the year-to-date cash flows into ETFs for the same asset categories.

The lack of flows into international stocks is surprising, at just 3% of total new cash flows. Even with that market down, you'd think the long-term rotation into international exposure would continue.

More surprising to my mind, however, is the huge flows into fixed income, at $12 billion and 35% of total cash flows, respectively. Commodities were also impressive, at 22% of new cash flows and nearly $8 billion of assets.

The story here is obvious but also telling: As equities slump, investors are moving into alternative assets. But at the same time, the ETF industry is aggressively moving into these new markets as well. Until 2007, there were just a handful of fixed-income ETFs on the market; today there are dozens, from a variety of providers. Similarly, there are more than 40 commodity-focused ETFs and ETNS on the market today, and more launching all the time.