With June nearly in the books, it is fair to say gold and silver exchange traded funds pleasantly surprised investors this month.
The SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) looks poised to close the month with a gain of 6% while the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca: SLV) and the ETFS Physical Silver Shares (NYSEArca: SIVR) are sitting on June gains of about 11.5%. Gold could still be an attractive hedge with equities in some parts of the developed world looking richly valued.
“While much of the attention lately in the precious metals market has turned to geopolitical events in Iraq and Russia, since the end of February the real yield on the US 7-year note has declined a full percent to zero-despite fed tapering,” said ETF Securities in a new research note.
Investors pulled $50.3 million from SLV last week, but more than $101 million flowed into GLD after assets in physical gold ETFs dipped to the lowest levels since 2009. [Asia Holds Keys for Gold ETFs]
“Since the end of February, the price of gold is effectively flat but is holding above US $1,300 oz. after recovering from a fall down towards the US $1,200/oz level following the announcement of aggressive new monetary easing measures by the European Central Bank (ECB),” said ETF Securities.