Last week's spike in gold prices lifted precious metals funds, but will it last after this week's fallback?
Investors streamed into energy and precious metals funds, gold in particular, as more than $1.1 billion in new investment capital flowed into commodity-related, exchanged-traded products this past week ending Thursday.
As has been the case for two weeks now, energy funds attracted the most inflows in the assets class, this time with $797 million in new capital. Precious metals followed, with $519 million. Those healthy inflows offset the other sectors that saw net outflows. Broad market (multicommodity) funds saw $138 million in outflows, followed by agriculture, with $43 million and industrial metals, which lost $3 million in outflows.
Exchange-traded products (ETPs) include exchange-traded funds (ETFs), exchange-traded vehicles (ETVs) and exchange-traded notes (ETNs)
ETP Inflows/Outflows
The Energy Select SPDR (NYSE Arca: XLE) attracted the most inflows for the third-straight week, with $367 million in new investment capital, followed by SPDR Gold (NYSE Arca: GLD) with $235 million, United States Oil (NYSE Arca: USO) with $197 million, iShares Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: IAU) with $100 million and Market Vectors Oil Services (NYSE Arca: OIH) with $93 million in inflows.
On the other side of the coin, the PowerShares DB Commodity Tracking (NYSE Arca: DBC) led redemptions, with $120 million in outflows, followed by SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production (NYSE Arca: XOP) with $48 million, ProShares UltraShort DJ − UBS Crude Oil (NYSE Arca: SCO) with $45 million, iPath Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: DJP) with $41 million and Elements Rogers International Commodity-Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: RJI), with $26 million in outflows.
ETP Performance
Riding the back of gold's biggest one-day advance in three years, precious metals funds dominated the top performers list. The Global X Pure Gold Miners (NYSE Arca: GGGG) clearly outperformed, with a jump of 10.49%, followed by Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners (NYSE Arca: GDXJ) gaining 7.92%, Global X Silver Miners (NYSE Arca: SIL) tacking on 7.51% and iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners (NYSE Arca: SLVP) chalking up a 6.43% increase.
The lone nonmetal fund, iPath Dow-Jones UBS Cocoa Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: NIB), took the fourth spot, with an increase of 7.05%.
Energy funds populated the worst performers, with the Morgan Stanley S&P 500 Oil Hedged ETN (NYSE Arca: BARL) falling 9.27%, followed by Elements Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN (NYSE Arca: GWO) shedding 7.14%, United States Natural Gas (NYSE Arca: UNG) declining 5.84% and iPath Dow Jones-UBS Energy Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JJE) dropping 4.63%. The lone nonenergy funds, Teucrium Wheat (NYSE Arca: WEAT), came in fifth, losing 4.31%.
Fund Flows Data: (June 1 - June 7, 2012)
Commodity ETF Weekly Flows By Sector
| Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| Agriculture | -42.54 | 9,476.33 | -0.45% |
| Broad Market | -138.18 | 12,070.98 | -1.14% |
| Energy | 797.43 | 29,293.64 | 2.72% |
| Industrial Metals | -3.24 | 1,341.27 | -0.24% |
| Precious Metals | 518.67 | 102,218.64 | 0.51% |
| Total: | 1,132.14 | 154,400.87 | 0.73% |
Top 5 Commodity ETF Creations
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| XLE | Energy Select SPDR | 366.87 | 6,752.23 | 5.75% |
| GLD | SPDR Gold | 234.67 | 65,794.08 | 0.36% |
| USO | United States Oil | 197.04 | 1,243.66 | 18.83% |
| IAU | iShares Gold Trust | 100.10 | 9,193.97 | 1.10% |
| OIH | Market Vectors Oil Services | 92.98 | 1,169.38 | 8.64% |
Top 5 Commodity ETF Redemptions
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| DBC | PowerShares DB Commodity Tracking | -119.72 | 5,364.43 | -2.18% |
| XOP | SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production | -48.12 | 750.21 | -6.03% |
| SCO | ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil | -44.69 | 75.58 | -37.16% |
| DJP | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Total Return ETN | -41.14 | 1,954.89 | -2.06% |
| RJI | ELEMENTS Rogers International Commodity - Total Return ETN | -26.13 | 584.83 | -4.28% |
Top 5 Weekly Performers, Excluding <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| GGGG | Global X PURE Gold Miners | 10.49% | 103,196 | 4.36 |
| GDXJ | Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners | 7.92% | 31,853,223 | 2,244.89 |
| SIL | Global X Silver Miners | 7.51% | 1,348,943 | 291.62 |
| NIB | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cocoa Total Return ETN | 7.05% | 83,638 | 23.89 |
| SLVP | iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners | 6.43% | 44,390 | 1.96 |
Bottom 5 Weekly Performers, Excluding <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| BARL | Morgan Stanley S&P 500 Oil Hedged ETN | -9.27% | 7,500 | 9.20 |
| GWO | ELEMENTS Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN | -7.14% | 8,124 | 0.00 |
| UNG | United States Natural Gas | -5.84% | 45,671,841 | 891.46 |
| JJE | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Energy Total Return ETN | -4.63% | 12,541 | 11.21 |
| WEAT | Teucrium Wheat | -4.31% | 10,500 | 4.48 |
Top 5 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) | Weekly Volume | % of Average |
| AGOL | ETFS Physical Asian Gold | 530 | 14,844 | 560.43% |
| PAGG | PowerShares Global Agriculture Portfolio | 16,860 | 205,299 | 243.54% |
| DGL | PowerShares DB Gold | 157,680 | 1,861,405 | 236.10% |
| FIW | First Trust ISE Water | 21,457 | 213,161 | 198.69% |
| FXN | First Trust Energy AlphaDEX | 57,105 | 468,998 | 164.26% |
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.
