Investors have been pulling out of the gold market and related exchange traded funds, with hedge funds extending their exodus from the precious metal for the third consecutive week.
Over the past month, the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD), iShares Gold Trust (NYSEArca: IAU) and ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (NYSEArca: SGOL) have all declined almost 3.5%.
Fueling the pullback from the gold market, hedge funds’ net-long positions in futures and options decreased 14% while holdings were down 49% over the past three weeks, the most since December, Bloomberg reports.
Net-long positions in gold dipped by 6,399 contracts to 38,673 futures and options for the week ended November 11 while short bets rose 3.6%.
COMEX gold futures are now trading around $1,182.4 per ounce.
Meanwhile, investors yanked $1.5 billion from GLD, $33.7 million from IAU and $23.5 million from SGOL for the month ended Oct. 14, according to ETF.com data. GLD’s assets fell for the fourth consecutive week. Moreover, related physically backed exchange traded products now hold the least amount of gold since 2009.
However, John Paulson’s hedge fund, the largest GLD shareholder, maintained its gold position with no GLD adjusts for a fifth consecutive quarter. [Paulson Not Among Those Departing GLD]
Weighing on the bullion market, a strong U.S. dollar has strengthened to a five-year high as the Federal Reserve looks at hiking interest rates, a risk-on mentality helps push the equities market to record highs and inflation remains below the Fed’s target. [Currency ETFs to Capture Forex Swings]