Another edition of weekly ETF flows is in the book, and this week, it’s gold that stood out, driving flows into the commodities category overall. Gold ETF flows may be responding to global turmoil that has also seen central banks worldwide buy significant amounts of the precious metal, as a downturn in markets may be anticipated.
| Asset Class | AUM ($, mm) | Net Flows ($, mm) |
|---|---|---|
| Bond | $1,346,271.09 | $3,188.68 |
| Equity | $5,283,162.02 | $2,448.32 |
| Commodity | $142,119.19 | $212.71 |
| Preferred Stock | $30,303.20 | $130.16 |
| Volatility | $2,933.55 | $41.45 |
| Currency | $3,812.04 | $19.63 |
| Real Estate | $67,171.73 | $9.77 |
| Multi-Asset | $30,687.96 | -$37.87 |
| Alternatives | $5,093.87 | -$49.25 |
Leading the way in gold ETF flows were the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) and the iShares Gold Trust ETF (IAU), which were both above $100 million for the week, at $205 million and $160 million for the week in inflows, respectively. Most other gold-focused ETFs saw much less in terms of flows, but IAU’s spike interestingly takes it into positive territory for YTD flows overall, though it has some way to go to catch up to GLD’s $1.08 billion in that time.
Elsewhere in the ETF landscape, equities and bond ETFs added $2.5 billion and $3.2 billion in net ETF flows, respectively. Equities saw notable strength thanks to $2.04 billion going into the Xtrackers MSCI USA Climate Action Equity ETF (USCA), which just launched with that initial injection of flows. Outside of USCA was a group of usual suspects like the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ), which was at $1.1 billion for the week.
In bonds, Vanguard took two of the top five places in terms of weekly net inflows, with the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) hitting $4 billion in YTD net inflows, thanks to $460 million over the last week. iShares took the top spot with its iShares iBoxx % Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) rebounding from YTD outflows with $648 million in net inflows over the last week.
Equities saw notable outflows from the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) over the last week as well, seeing -$2.6 billion in outflows, while curiously, USCA saw about the same amount of outflows and inflows over the past week, suggesting some inorganic movement for the climate-focused strategy.
Whatever the case, gold ETF flows may be worth keeping an eye on should global volatility continue to impact markets and central bank leaders alike.
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