by Sumit Roy
It was a slow week for ETP flows, but investors remained interested in precious metals.
It was an uneventful week for commodity-related exchange-traded product flows, as every sector saw only fractional movements.
Precious metals and broad market (multicommodity) ETPs had inflows of $70 million and $31 million, respectively. Agriculture, energy and industrial metals ETPs had outflows of $66 million, $62 million and $4 million, respectively.
ETP Inflows/Outflows
Given that sector movements were modest, naturally, flows into and out of individual ETPs were the same.
The iShares Silver Trust (SLV), Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) and Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) were three precious metals products that took spots No. 1, 2 and 4 on the top inflows list. Investors added $68 million, $50 million and $47 million, respectively, to each.
Two energy names, the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) and Alerian MLP (AMLP) took spots Nos. 3 and 5, with inflows of $47 million and $45 million, respectively.
The outflows list also contained a mix of precious metals and energy ETPs, though the latter made up the bulk of the names.
The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) was the worst performer of the week, as it lost $118 million.
The United States Oil Fund (USO), Direxion Daily Energy Bull 3x (ERX), ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Crude Oil (UCO) and SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production (XOP) saw outflows of $43 million, $40 million, $22 million and $20 million, respectively.
ETP Price Performance
On the price performance side, the ELEMENTS Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN (GWO) led, with an 11.31 percent gain.
The iPath Dow Jones-UBS Nickel Subindex Total Return ETN (JJN), iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Materials (AXMT), ETFS Physical Palladium (PALL) and iPath Pure Beta Industrial Metals ETN (HEVY) followed, with advances of 7.48 percent, 6.95 percent, 6.47 percent and 5.44 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, two cocoa funds made an appearance on the worst price performers list.
The iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cocoa Subindex Total Return ETN (NIB) and iPath Pure Beta Cocoa ETN (CHOC) fell by 7.56 percent and 6.02 percent, respectively.
The iPath Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Total Return ETN (GAZ), Global X China Energy ETF (CHIE) and Global X Gold Explorers ETF (GLDX) also made the list, with losses of 6.02 percent, 5.8 percent and 5.59 percent, respectively.
Fund Flows Data: December 2 - December 8
Commodity ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| Agriculture | -65.80 | 10,844.34 | -0.61% |
| Broad Market | 31.18 | 13,218.73 | 0.24% |
| Energy | -62.33 | 29,992.05 | -0.21% |
| Industrial Metals | -3.99 | 1,869.51 | -0.21% |
| Precious Metals | 70.08 | 111,149.56 | 0.06% |
| Total: | -30.86 | 167,074.20 | -0.02% |
Top 5 Commodity ETF Creations
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SLV | iShares Silver | 68.85 | 10,252.07 | 0.68% |
| GDXJ | Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners | 50.23 | 2,298.37 | 2.23% |
| UNG | United States Natural Gas | 47.46 | 1,293.19 | 3.81% |
| GDX | Market Vectors Gold Miners | 46.52 | 9,577.55 | 0.49% |
| AMLP | Alerian MLP | 45.26 | 1,792.33 | 2.59% |
Top 5 Commodity ETF Redemptions
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| GLD | SPDR Gold | -118.15 | 71,418.79 | -0.17% |
| USO | United States Oil | -42.91 | 1,200.04 | -3.45% |
| ERX | Direxion Daily Energy Bull 3x | -39.97 | 353.61 | -10.16% |
| UCO | ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Crude Oil | -21.72 | 270.09 | -7.44% |
| XOP | SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production | -19.71 | 930.63 | -2.07% |
Top 5 Weekly Performers, Excluding <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| GWO | ELEMENTS Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN | 11.31% | 13,952 | 0.00 |
| JJN | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Nickel Total Return ETN | 7.48% | 10,143 | 7.90 |
| AXMT | iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Materials | 6.95% | 1,500 | 5.34 |
| PALL | ETFS Physical Palladium | 6.47% | 631,541 | 413.70 |
| HEVY | iPath Pure Beta Industrial Metals ETN | 5.44% | 1,100 | 1.50 |
Bottom 5 Weekly Performers, Excluding <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| NIB | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cocoa Total Return ETN | -7.56% | 247,206 | 17.26 |
| GAZ | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Total Return ETN | -6.02% | 608,321 | 68.00 |
| CHOC | iPath Pure Beta Cocoa ETN | -6.02% | 4,400 | 2.17 |
| CHIE | Global X China Energy | -5.80% | 3,655 | 4.03 |
| GLDX | Global X Gold Explorers | -5.59% | 68,169 | 24.72 |
Top 5 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) | Weekly Volume | % of Average |
| ENY | Guggenheim Canadian Energy Income | 60,859 | 463,819 | 152.42% |
| AGOL | ETFS Physical Asian Gold | 1,109 | 8,096 | 146.03% |
| PBD | PowerShares Global Clean Energy Portfolio | 54,480 | 373,467 | 137.10% |
| GEX | Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy | 34,832 | 234,406 | 134.59% |
| GSG | iShares S&P GSCI Commodity | 316,159 | 2,121,807 | 134.22% |
