Precious Metal Holdings and ETFs Decline Amid Selloff

August 11, 2008 at 3:00 pm by Tom Lydon

As the commodities pullback continues, investors are pulling their money out of precious metals and sending related exchange traded funds (ETFs) lower.

ETF Securities says the amount of metal it holds to back its physical platinum exchange traded commodity (ETC) dropped 11.5% last week.

Holdings for gold, silver and palladium tumbled last week, as well.

U.S.-listed ETFs for precious and industrial metals all fell sharply last week, including:

  • Market Vectors Steel (SLX): down 7.3% last week; down 6.4% year-to-date
  • iShares COMEX Gold (IAU): down 6% last week; up 2.3% year-to-date
  • SPDR Gold Shares (GLD): down 5.7% last week; up 2.6% year-to-date
  • PowerShares DB Gold (DGL): down 6% last week; up 0.7% year-to-date
  • iShares Silver Trust (SLV): down 12.3% last week; up 3.1% year-to-date

While there’s no ETF in the United States that holds physical platinum, there some exchange traded notes (ETNs) for the metal, all of which were launched this year:

  • E-TRACS UBS Short Platinum (PTD), up 23.3% since May 9 inception
  • E-TRACS UBS Long Platinum (PTM), down 24.6% since May 9 inception
  • iPath DJ AIG Platinum TR Sub-Index (PGM), down 20.5% since July 8 inception

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