ETF Spotlight on iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (NYSEArca: GSG), part of a weekly series.
Assets: $1.7 billion
Holdings: Tracks an index of futures contracts among the following categories: energy, 69.7%; agriculture, 14%; industrial metals, 8.1%; livestock, 4.3%; and precious metals, 3.5%.
Objective: Seeks to track the performance of the GSCI Excess Return Index.
What You Should Know
- ETFs that hold futures contracts have special tax considerations
- The index tracks 24 commodities and is production weighted according to the significance of each commodity to the world economy
- GSG is a broad-based commodity fund and a low-cost way to gain exposure to a variety of commodities
- Expense ratio is 0.75%
The Latest News
- Investors in 2009 have sought the security of hard assets, fearing imminent inflation, an ever-weaker U.S. dollar and an anemic domestic economy.
- Investment inflows into commodities are expected to exceed that of 2008, and investors have been more than compensating for the weak physical demand.
- Long- commodity ETFs have seen about $3 billion in new assets since November, as net cash flow was more than triple October’s total. It was also the biggest influx since summer.
