Written by Sumit Roy  |

April 08, 2011

Weekly Commodity ETF Flows Report: Investors Pile Into Gold; XOP Assets Plunge

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ETF investors flocked back to gold this week, while USO and XOP dragged down the energy sector.

This week's 32-month highs in commodities were reflected in fresh inflows into commodity-related exchange-traded products. Assets in the space reached $172 billion thanks to a combination of $1.8 billion in inflows and $2.3 billion in capital appreciation.

All five sectors saw net inflows in the period. Precious metals—last week's laggard—rose to first place this week on the back of inflows totaling a whopping $679 million. But inflows into broad market ETPs, agriculture funds and energy products were not too shabby either, at $332 million, $322 million and $314 million, respectively. Rounding out the list were the industrial metals ETFs, which received $175 million in investor capital.

In recent weeks, gold has rallied, but we hadn't seen a similar move in ETF inflows; all that changed this week, as investors plowed $397 million into the iShares Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: IAU). Notably, the inflows into IAU didn't come at the expense of its higher-cost rival SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: GLD), which saw $269 million in inflows itself, the third-highest of the week.

While physical gold products did well, the biggest winner of the week was the Energy Select SPDR Fund (NYSE Arca: XLE), with $521 million in inflows. Interestingly, the JPMorgan Alerian MLP Index ETN (NYSE Arca: AMJ) attracted $191 million in capital; income-minded investors likely are now viewing high-yield master limited partnerships as a relatively conservative way to play the energy trend.

Despite the massive inflows into XLE and AMJ, other energy funds had a dismal week. United States Oil Fund (NYSE Arca: USO), for example, continued to hemorrhage assets for a second week. Outflows totaled a staggering $374 million, even after losses of $312 million last week. Investors appear to be using the spike in oil prices as an opportunity to exit the futures-based fund.

Another energy underperformer this week was the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSE Arca: XOP), which saw the second-largest outflows in the period, likely due to profit taking. The $324 million in outflows more than reversed the $275 million in inflows from last week. Overall, however, XOP has seen a steady accumulation of assets this year, due to increasing investor interest and very solid price appreciation.

Speaking of price performance, the list of top gainers this week was quite diverse. The extremely illiquid iPath Global Carbon ETN (NYSE Arca: GRN) took the top spot, rising 12.46 percent. Miners also fared well this week, with the Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE Arca: SIL) showing a 6.81 percent appreciation and the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE Arca: GDXJ) posting a 6.25 percent gain. Copper miner funds Global X Copper Miners ETF (NYSE Arca: COPX) and First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund (NYSE Arca: CU) gained 6.34 percent and 5.58 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, a move lower in natural gas prices took its toll on related exchange-traded products: Four of the week's worst performers were natural gas funds. The United States Natural Gas (NYSE Arca: UNG) lost 7.64 percent, while the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: GAZ) lost 6.94 percent. Even the contango-mitigating United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund (NYSE Arca: UNL) felt the bite, dropping 5.64 percent.

Fund Flows Data: March 31 - April 7, 2011

Commodity ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

Top 5 Commodity ETF Creations

Top 5 Commodity ETF Redemptions

Top 5 Weekly Performers (excluding Leverage/Inverse, >1,000 Shares Traded)

Bottom 5 Weekly Performers (Excluding Leverage/Inverse, >1,000 Shares Traded)

Top 5 Volume Surprises (>$50mm AUM)

Disclaimer: Data provided by IndexUniverse. All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern April 8, 2011. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.