With Wednesday’s gains, gains which took some gold exchange traded products to fresh highs, the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD), iShares Gold Trust (NYSEArca: IAU) and ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (NYSEArca: SGOL) are sporting year-to-date gains of around 28%.
It is only early July and gains of 28% percent or more in just over six months could be enough to convince some traders that gold is due for a pullback. However, that does not appear to be a bet many market participants are willing to make. In fact, some market observers are increasingly bullish on bullion.
Related: Demand Fundamentals Could Support Gold ETFs
Investors have not been shy about displaying their affinity for gold ETFs this year. For example, as of July 5, GLD’s year-to-date inflows were $12.3 billion, or $5.5 billion more than the second-best ETF in terms of new assets added.
Gold bullion prices have surged this year as the Fed previously signaled it would slow the pace of interest rate normalization this year – higher interest rates typically weigh on gold prices since the hard asset provide no yield and would become less attractive to higher-yielding conservative debt assets in a rising rate environment.
[related_stories]“Investors can’t seem to get enough gold. Holdings in SPDR Gold Shares, the world’s biggest exchange-traded fund backed by the metal, posted the biggest gain since 2009 on Tuesday. The rise in ETFs and prices trading at a two-year high underscore UBS Group AG’s view that bullion is probably at the beginning of its next bull run, as investors spooked by the U.K.’s Brexit vote snap up haven assets,” reports Joseph Richter for Bloomberg.