Gold futures closed at their lowest levels since June Monday, with well-known exchange traded funds following suit. The SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) and the iShares Gold Trust (NYSEArca: IAU) each finished lower by about 1.1%.
That glum Monday showing comes on the heels of data that indicate investors and traders are backing away from gold and gold ETFs. The net-long position in futures and options is at its lowest in 11 weeks after speculators added the most short bets in three months,” report Megan Durisin and Lydia Mulvany for Bloomberg, citing data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Last week, GLD and IAU lost $378.3 and $7.4 million in assets, respectively, but those outflows have not yet trickled down to gold miners ETFs. At least not in a big way. [Gold ETF Departures on the Rise]
For the week ended Sept. 5, the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDX) actually pulled in almost $4 million while the newly minted Sprott Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: SGDM) added $1.1 million in new assets. SGDM is not yet a month old and already has 1.6 million shares outstanding, according to issuer data.
One of the more egregious offenders among gold miners ETFs is the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDXJ), which saw outflows of $11.7 million last week. GDXJ is $80 million lighter since the start of the third quarter, but that is less than half the third-quarter outflow of $166 million from GLD. GDX has impressively pulled in $351.3 million even as GLD has lost 5.5%.
The divergence of flows into gold miners ETFs and out of physically-backed funds is not new. A similar scenario was spotted late in the second quarter. That gave way to GDX and GDXJ surging 18.7% and 26.6%, respectively, in June. [Gold ETFs, Miners Flows Diverge]