Fresh investor buying helped equity markets advance to new multiyear highs this week, as the Federal Reserve signaled it would keep monetary policy accommodative for a while longer. Commodity exchange-traded products weren't left out of the buying spree; $750 million of new capital flowed into the space, helping send total assets to $179 billion.
But like last week, individual sector performance varied significantly. Once again, inflows were heavily tilted toward precious metals ETPs, in which investors added $682 million. The other sectors—including energy, broad market, industrial metals, and agriculture—didn't fare nearly as well, with net inflows of $122 million, $120 million, $12 million, and outflows of $186 million, respectively.
It's also worth noting that while inflows into precious metals ETPs totaled $682 million in the period, total assets rose by a more substantial $3.9 billion, thanks to capital appreciation from surging gold and silver prices.
Turning to individual products—unsurprisingly—precious-metals-related ETPs dominated, taking four of the top five spots for net inflows. Interestingly, however, the Energy Select SPDR Fund (NYSE Arca: XLE) was No. 1, with $370 million in inflows. We can likely attribute this to a modest reversal of some of the $1.7 billion in outflows the fund has seen over the past couple of weeks.
One fund that has received a lot of attention recently, ProShares UltraShort Silver (NYSE Arca: ZSL), found itself on the inflows list for a second week, as more and more traders attempt to time the top in silver prices. All told, $201 million of capital entered the fund, the week's third-highest total.
Also on the top creations list were the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE Arca: GDX), the PowerShares DB Precious Metals Fund (NYSE Arca: DBP) and the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Precious Metals Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JJP), with $207 million, $190 million and $118 million in inflows, respectively.
The outflows list this week was quite diverse. Ironically, the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE Arca: SLV) led with $189 million in outflows, as investors took profits. PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (NYSE Arca: DBA), the United States Oil Fund (NYSE Arca: USO), the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cotton Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: BAL) and the United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE Arca: UNG) followed with $129 million, $94 million, $85 million and $70 million in outflows, respectively. Incidentally, over the past month, investors have pulled over $900 million from the United States Oil Fund.
Taking a look at price performance for the week, silver ETPs dominated for a second week as the white metal rocketed to a record high. But the No.1 spot went to the Elements Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN (NYSE Arca: GWO), which rose by 13.84 percent. This, however, is a highly volatile product, so you shouldn't read too much into its movements.
The UBS E-TRACS CMCI Silver Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: USV), ETFS Physical Silver Shares (NYSE Arca: SIVR), iShares Silver Trust (NYSE Arca: SLV) and PowerShares DB Silver Fund (NYSE Arca: DBS) followed, with returns of 9.17 percent, 7.14 percent, 7.12 percent and 7.01 percent, respectively.
Ag-related ETPs made up the bulk of the bottom price performers list this week. The iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cotton Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: BAL) fell 9.64 percent as cotton prices plunged. The UBS E-TRACS CMCI Livestock Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: UBC) fell 4.21 percent, and the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Softs Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JJS) dropped 3.98 percent.
Fund Flows Data: April 21 - 27, 2011
Commodity ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| | Net Flows
($, mm) | AUM
($, mm) | % of AUM |
| Agriculture | -185.66 | 12,589.41 | -1.47% |
| Broad Market | 120.25 | 18,043.27 | 0.67% |
| Energy | 121.75 | 40,298.27 | 0.30% |
| Industrial Metals | 11.66 | 4,106.96 | 0.28% |
| Precious Metals | 682.49 | 104,155.22 | 0.66% |
| Total: | 750.49 | 179,193.13 | 0.42% |
Top 5 Commodity ETF Creations
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows
($,mm) | AUM
($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| XLE | Energy Select SPDR | 370.40 | 10,308.90 | 3.73% |
| GDX | Market Vectors Gold Miners | 206.51 | 7,105.65 | 2.99% |
| ZSL | ProShares UltraShort Silver | 200.78 | 336.14 | 148.33% |
| DBP | PowerShares DB Precious Metals | 189.78 | 582.09 | 48.37% |
| JJP | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Precious Metals Total Return ETN | 117.84 | 164.38 | 253.19% |
Top 5 Commodity ETF Redemptions
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows
($,mm) | AUM
($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SLV | iShares Silver | - 189.30 | 17,252.14 | -1.09% |
| DBA | PowerShares DB Agriculture | -129.47 | 3,755.06 | -3.33% |
| USO | United States Oil | - 94.08 | 1,577.84 | -5.63% |
| BAL | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cotton Total Return ETN | - 85.25 | 143.56 | -37.26% |
| UNG | United States Natural Gas | - 70.15 | 2,221.43 | -3.06% |
Top 5 Weekly Performers (Excluding Leverage/Inverse, >1,000 Shares Traded)
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM
($, mm) |
| GWO | ELEMENTS Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN | 13.84% | 56,687 | 3.82 |
| USV | UBS E-TRACS CMCI Silver Total Return ETN | 9.17% | 98,476 | 11.75 |
| SIVR | ETFS Physical Silver | 7.14% | 13,364,199 | 983.38 |
| SLV | iShares Silver | 7.12% | 920,828,035 | 17,252.14 |
| DBS | PowerShares DB Silver | 7.01% | 1,880,011 | 534.25 |
Bottom 5 Weekly Performers (Excluding Leverage/Inverse, >1,000 Shares Traded)
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM
($, mm) |
| BAL | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cotton Total Return ETN | -9.64% | 3,738,136 | 143.56 |
| FUE | ELEMENTS MLCX Biofuels Total Return ETN | -4.75% | 4,697 | 2.80 |
| LD | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Lead Total Return ETN | -4.72% | 15,527 | 6.58 |
| UBC | UBS E-TRACS CMCI Livestock Total Return ETN | -4.21% | 13,162 | 5.22 |
| JJS | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Softs Total Return ETN | -3.98% | 686,371 | 103.02 |
Top 5 Volume Surprises (>$50mm AUM)
Ticker | Name | Average Volume
(30 Day) | 1 Week Average Volume | % of Average |
| JJP | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Precious Metals Total Return ETN | 58,977 | 2,434,249 | 825.49% |
| DBP | PowerShares DB Precious Metals | 224,831 | 5,110,797 | 454.63% |
| ZSL | ProShares UltraShort Silver | 8,056,659 | 168,101,011 | 417.30% |
| BAL | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cotton Total Return ETN | 224,545 | 3,738,136 | 332.95% |
| SLV | iShares Silver | 57,093,072 | 920,828,035 | 322.57% |
Disclaimer: Data provided by IndexUniverse. All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern the date of publication. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.