While precious metals prices were rising, investors have been slowly cutting back on their gold exchange traded fund exposure, which suggests that traders are less risk adverse and the rally in safe-haven bullion could be petering out.
The SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD), the largest physically backed gold ETF, saw bullion holdings diminish 1.2% to 751.96 metric tons Monday, the least amount since November 2008, Bloomberg reports.
Over the past week, investors pulled $370.8 million from GLD, according to ETF.com data. Meanwhile, GLD gained 1.1% over the past week as a global sell-off pushed investors into safe-haven assets. The ETF is now testing its 50-day resistance level. [Safe-Haven Bets Help Gold ETFs Shine]
Gold prices have shown an inverse relationship to equities as the precious metal is used as a safe store of value and as a hedge against volatility. Gold gains, though, were tempered by an appreciating U.S. dollar, which made the metal more expensive to foreign traders.
However, the equities market is rallying off the Oct. 16 low as U.S. corporate earnings helped support the recovery in stocks.
“People are gradually beginning to believe that the stock market is stabilizing,” Michael Gayed, chief investment strategist at Pension Partners LLC, said in the Bloomberg article. “Also, the perception that the U.S. economy is doing well is lowering interest in gold.”
COMEX gold futures were trading just below $1,250 per ounce after rallying from $1,191 at the beginning of October.