HardAssetsInvestor

Written by Drew Voros  |

September 14, 2012

Commodity ETF Flows: Investors Add Positive Inflows To All Sectors; Lead ETF Skyrockets 20%

Details

Broad-market funds take lion’s share of inflows, while rally in industrial metals boosts related funds.

While investors pushed a modest $359 million of new capital into commodity-related, exchange-traded products this past week, it was a rare instance when all sectors registered positive inflows in the days leading up to Thursday’s QE3 announcement by the Federal Reserve.

In addition, it was unusual that precious metals as well as energy funds took a back seat to broad-market (multicommodity) funds, which raked in $184 million of inflows, followed by precious metals with $92 million, energy with $45 million, agriculture with $27 million and industrial metals with $12 million in inflows.

Exchange-traded products (ETPs) include exchange-traded funds (ETFs), exchange-traded vehicles (ETVs) and exchange-traded notes (ETNs).

ETP Inflows/Outflows

Topping individuals fund creation was iShares Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: IAU) with $208 million, followed by SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production (NYSE Arca: XOP) with $192 million, SPDR S&P Metals and Mining (NYSE Arca: XME) with $152 million, Market Vector Junior Gold Miners (NYSE Arca: GDXJ) with $74 million and PowerShares DB Commodity Tracking (NYSE Arca: DBC) with $58 million in new capital.

Market Vectors Gold Miners (NYSE Arca: GDX) topped the outflows list with $235 million flowing out of the fund, followed by United States Natural Gas (NYSE Arca: UNG) with $108 million, United States Oil (NYSE Arca: USO) with $94 million, Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull (NYSE Arca: NUGT) with $44 million and SPDR Global Natural Resources (NYSE Arca: GNR) with $20 million.

ETP Performance

A rally in industrial metals on the back of China’s announcement of more than $150 billion in infrastructure stimulus gave a strong boost to related funds, with iPath Dow Jones-UBS Lead Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: LD) spiking 20.61 percent, followed by iPath Dow Jones-UBS Industrial Metals Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JJM) with a 14.14 percent gain, iPath Dow-Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JO) with a 13.16 percent increase, PowerShares Global Steel (NYSE Arca: PSTL) with a 12.95 percent jump and Market Vector Rare Earth/Strategic Metals (NYSE Arca: REMX) tacking on 11.60 percent.

The worst performers were topped by ELEMENTS MLCX Biofuels Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: FUE), which fell 4.91 percent, followed by ELEMENTS Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN (NYSE Arca: GWO) with a 4.28 percent drop, iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cotton Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: BAL) with a 3.38 percent decrease, iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cocoa Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: NIB) with a 2.81 percent drop-off and iPath Pure Beta Cocoa ETN (NYSE Arca: CHOC) sliding 2.33 percent.

Fund Flows Data: (September 07 - September 13, 2012)

Commodity ETF Weekly Flows By Sector

Top 5 Commodity ETF Creations

Top 5 Commodity ETF Redemptions

Top 5 Weekly Performers, Excluding <1,000 Shares Traded

Bottom 5 Weekly Performers, Excluding <1,000 Shares Traded

Top 5 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

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.