HardAssetsInvestor

Written by Drew Voros  |

September 21, 2012

Commodity ETF Flows: Investors Pour $1.7B Into Precious Metals Funds; Lead & Aluminum Funds Top Performers

Details

Commodity funds as a whole collect more than $2 billion in new investment capital on the heels of QE3 from the Federal Reserve.

Taking their cue from the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 12 announcement of a third round of quantitative easing, investor stormed into commodity-related, exchange-traded products this past week ending Thursday, to the tune of more than $2.1 billion.

All commodity sectors saw inflows the week following QE3, with precious metals attracting $1.7 billion in inflows, followed by energy with $188 million, broad market (multicommodity) with $175 million, industrial metals with $31 million and agriculture with $28 million.

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

ETP Inflows/Outflows

Naturally, gold funds were the magnet for inflows, since QE3 is a boon for the monetary metal, with SPDR Gold (NYSE Arca: GLD) taking in $910 million, followed by Market Vectors Gold Miners (NYSE Arca: GDX) with $359 million, iShares Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: IAU) with $274 million, United States Oil (NYSE Arca: USO) with $215 million and iShares Silver Trust (NYSE Arca: SLV) with $191 million in inflows.

Outflows were led by Market Vectors Oil Services (NYSE Arca: OIH) with $129 million, followed by Direxion Daily Energy Bull 3X (NYSE Arca: ERX) with $44 million, ETFS Physical Platinum (NYSE Arca: PPLT) with $33 million, First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas (NYSE Arca: FCG) with $22 million and ETFS Physical Palladium (NYSE Arca: PALL) with $20 million in outflows.

ETP Performance

Base metals funds were the top performers, also benefitting from QE3 and global monetary easing. For the second-straight week, iPath Pure Beta Lead ETN (NYSE Arca: LEDD) was the best performer, with an 11.23 percent gain (last week it jumped 20 percent), followed by iPath Pure Beta Aluminum (NYSE Arca: FOIL) with a 7.69 percent increase, iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Materials (AXMT) with a 6.96 percent climb, iPath Pure Beta Seasonal Natural Gas ETN (NYSE Arca: DCNG) with a 6.33 percent appreciation and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Energy Sector Capped (NYSE Arca: EMEY) adding 5.47 percent.

Energy and ag funds populated the worst performers, led by iPath Global Carbon ETN (NYSE Arca: GRN), which fell 8.75 percent, followed by ELEMENTS Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN (NYSE Arca: GWO) with an 8.08 percent decline, United States Natural Gas (NYSE Arca: UNG) with a 6.78 percent fall, iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JO) with a 6.38 decrease and Teucrium Soybeans (NYSE Arca: SOYB) shedding 6.34 percent.

Fund Flows Data: (September 14 - September 20, 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.