Exchange traded funds backed by holdings of physical gold have been under siege this year. So much so that two of the 10 worst ETFs, including the worst, in terms of year-to-date outflows are gold funds.
Last week brought a departure from this year’s norm as investors actually poured cash into gold ETFs, leading to a rare increase in the ounces held by ETFs such as the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) and iShares Gold Trust (NYSEArca: IAU).
GLD “gained +292.87-K oz, taking the YTD investment to 5.32-M oz and combined gold holdings to 41.76-M oz.,” reports Paul Ebeling for Live Trading News. IAU brought in “+279.10-K oz ” to bring its year-to-date total to “3.75-M oz. YTD, the fund’s total investment amounted to 1.20-M oz.”
News of last week’s inflows to gold ETFs could not come at a better time for the beleaguered funds. Although gold rose in October, usually the worst month of the year for the yellow metal, investors pulled money from gold funds last month. At the end of the month, GLD’s year-to-date asset loss was over $22 billion, according to BlackRock. [October ETF Inflows Rise Despite Government Woes]
Silver ETFs, such as the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca: SLV) and the ETFS Physical Silver Shares (NYSEArca: SIVR), also saw an increase in ounces owned last week, according to Live Trading. In a reversal from what has been seen with gold ETFs, investors have stuck by silver funds this year. SLV has 2013 inflows of more than $424 million. [Silver ETFs Could Shine for Long-Term Investors]