By Sumit Roy
Despite more macroeconomic worries and volatility in financial markets, commodity-related exchange-traded products managed to see a solid net inflow in aggregate last week. Investors added $863 million to the space, only the second inflow in eight weeks.
The energy sector was the big winner in the period. Investors added $646 million in energy-related ETPs despite plunging oil prices amid an emergency release of stockpiles by the International Energy Agency.
Precious metals also fared well, with $271 million in inflows, bucking a decline in prices for underlying gold and silver prices.
Broad market (multicommodity) ETPs eked out $82 million in inflows, while industrial metals and agriculture saw outflows of $39 million and $96 million, respectively.
Fueling energy’s strong performance this week was the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE). After losing almost $3 billion since April, the fund took the top spot last week, with $352 million in inflows.
Other energy products on this week’s top five include the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP) and the United States Oil Fund (USO), taking the Nos. 2 and 4 spots, with $179 million and $104 million in inflows, respectively.
Spot Nos. 3 and 5 went to the SPDR S&P Metals and Mining ETF (XME) and the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) after investors added $122 million and $100 million, respectively, to the funds.
Noticeably absent from the top inflows list this week is the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (MOO). That’s because after six weeks of continued inflows, MOO flows flipped and the fund now finds itself at No. 5 on the outflows list for last week. But the mere $18 million in outflows does little to reverse the $1.1 billion in inflows the fund saw over the past several weeks.
Indeed, none of the funds on this past week’s outflows list saw huge investor withdrawals. Both the iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (GSG) and the PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) led, with a modest $46 million in outflows each, while the PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Short ETN (DTO) and the First Trust ISE Global Copper Index ETF (CU) followed, with $21 million and $20 million in outflows, respectively.
The top price performers for the week were miners, sugar and cocoa. The Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) came in first, with a 5.24 percent return.
The iPath Dow Jones-UBS Sugar Subindex Total Return (SGG) was next, with a 4.91 percent gain, followed by the Market Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (REMX), the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) and the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cocoa Subindex Total Return ETN (NIB), with returns of 4.85 percent, 4.57 percent and 4.33 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the bottom price performers consisted of traditional energy, alternative energy and agriculture products. The iPath Global Carbon ETN (GRN) was the worst performer, losing 9.9 percent on the week.
The United States Heating Oil Fund (UHN), the Elements Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN (GWO), the iPath Pure Beta Agriculture ETN (DIRT), and the United States Brent Oil Fund (BNO) followed, with losses of 6.29 percent, 5.74 percent, 5.52 percent and 5.32 percent, respectively.
Fund Flows Data: June 16 - June 23
Commodity ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| Agriculture | -96.39 | 12,757.63 | -0.76% |
| Broad Market | 81.51 | 15,406.00 | 0.53% |
| Energy | 646.19 | 34,308.69 | 1.88% |
| Industrial Metals | -38.92 | 3,012.75 | -1.29% |
| Precious Metals | 270.50 | 94,322.95 | 0.29% |
| Total: | 862.89 | 159,808.03 | 0.54% |
Top 5 Commodity ETF Creations
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| XLE | Energy Select SPDR Fund | 352.13 | 8,900.05 | 4.12% |
| XOP | SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF | 179.38 | 1,053.39 | 20.52% |
| XME | SPDR S&P Metals and Mining ETF | 122.18 | 1,018.62 | 13.63% |
| USO | United States Oil Fund | 104.04 | 1,349.81 | 8.35% |
| GDX | Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF | 100.29 | 6,753.79 | 1.51% |
Top 5 Commodity ETF Redemptions
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| GSG | iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Index Trust | -45.72 | 1,540.50 | -2.88% |
| DBA | PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund | -45.47 | 3,152.81 | -1.42% |
| DTO | PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Short ETN | - 21.11 | 130.14 | -13.96% |
| CU | First Trust ISE Global Copper Index ETF | -19.63 | 207.93 | -8.63% |
| MOO | Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF | -18.11 | 5,303.03 | -0.34% |
Top 5 Weekly Performers (Excluding Leverage/Inverse. >1,000 Shares Traded)
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| SIL | Global X Silver Miners ETF | 5.24% | 1,554,001 | 408.55 |
| SGG | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Sugar Total Return ETN | 4.91% | 289,376 | 70.37 |
| REMX | Market Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF | 4.85% | 991,274 | 448.25 |
| GDXJ | Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF | 4.57% | 13,641,645 | 2,008.25 |
| NIB | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cocoa Total Return ETN | 4.33% | 202,699 | 25.24 |
Bottom 5 Weekly Performers (Excluding Leverage/Inverse. >1,000 Shares Traded)
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| GRN | iPath Global Carbon ETN | -9.90% | 17,770 | 2.48 |
| UHN | United States Heating Oil Fund | -6.29% | 29,154 | 6.42 |
| GWO | ELEMENTS Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN | -5.74% | 4,072 | 0.00 |
| DIRT | iPath Pure Beta Agriculture ETN | -5.52% | 4,704 | 5.75 |
| BNO | United States Brent Oil Fund | -5.32% | 815,168 | 50.12 |
Top 5 Volume Surprises (>$50mm AUM)
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) | 1 Week Average Volume | % of Average |
| MLPI | UBS E-TRACS Alerian MLP Infrastructure ETN | 36,578 | 534,473 | 292.24% |
| COW | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Livestock Total Return ETN | 86,645 | 1,033,681 | 238.60% |
| PUW | PowerShares WilderHill Progressive Energy Portfolio Fund | 15,722 | 180,753 | 229.94% |
| MLPN | Credit Suisse Cushing 30 MLP Index ETN | 117,042 | 1,270,600 | 217.12% |
| BNO | United States Brent Oil Fund | 78,793 | 815,168 | 206.91% |
Disclaimer: Data provided by IndexUniverse. All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern the date of publication. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.
