Gold ETFs GLD and IAU Shed Billions, Driving Commodity Channel Outflows

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Weekly Channel Summary

The Commodities channel, comprising 72 ETFs from 28 issuers, holds $306.43 billion in total assets. This week, the channel experienced significant net outflows of $2.95 billion, deepening year-to-date redemptions to $6.31 billion. This recent exit contrasts sharply with the channel’s performance over the past year, during which it has accumulated $29.13 billion in net new assets.

This Week’s Performance Leaders and Laggards

Agriculture-focused funds were a bright spot in a broadly negative week for commodity performance, gaining 0.55% and leading all categories. On the other end of the spectrum, Specialty – Shipping Freight funds plunged by 15.88%, giving back a small portion of their substantial year-to-date gains. Precious Metals also saw a significant decline, falling 5.49% for the week, contributing to the channel’s overall negative performance.

Category Performance Snapshot

Category WTD 1 Month 3 Month 6 Month YTD 1 Year
Focused – Agriculture 0.55% -3.76% -1.65% 4.43% 5.46% 4.33%
Specialty – Carbon Credits 0.31% 5.30% 13.42% -2.16% -2.69% 12.34%
Multi-Sector – Broad Market -2.05% -10.03% -3.41% 17.11% 18.71% 28.11%
Focused – Energy -3.82% -17.66% -5.24% 44.37% 46.48% 37.52%
Focused – Industrial Metals -4.78% -5.74% 7.67% 7.85% 5.47% 23.49%
Focused – Precious Metals -5.49% -12.34% -12.33% -11.63% -8.39% 25.05%
Specialty – Shipping Freight -15.88% -11.94% 36.24% 345.06% 366.78% 710.33%

Top & Bottom 5 ETFs by Weekly Performance

The Teucrium Soybean Fund (SOYB) led all individual funds with a 1.19% weekly gain, followed closely by other agriculture-focused products. Conversely, the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (BWET) posted the steepest decline, falling 29.23%. Silver funds also suffered heavy losses, with the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF (SIVR) both dropping by more than 12%.

Ticker Fund Name WTD Performance
Top Performers
SOYB Teucrium Soybean Fund 1.19%
DBA Invesco DB Agriculture Fund 1.09%
PDBA Invesco Agriculture Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF 1.01%
KCCA KraneShares California Carbon Allowance Strategy ETF 0.40%
UGA United States Gasoline Fund LP 0.26%
Bottom Performers
BWET Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF -29.23%
SIVR abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF -12.05%
SLV iShares Silver Trust -12.01%
PALL abrdn Physical Palladium Shares ETF -7.36%
GLTR abrdn Physical Precious Metals Basket Shares ETF -7.18%

Analyzing the Weekly Flows

The channel saw substantial net outflows of nearly $3.0 billion, driven almost entirely by one category. Focused – Precious Metals funds bled $2.56 billion, continuing a trend that has seen the group lose over $12.2 billion year-to-date. In contrast, Focused – Industrial Metals was the only category to attract meaningful new assets, pulling in a modest $18 million. Broad Market and Agriculture funds also saw notable redemptions of $246 million and $156 million, respectively.

Category Flows Summary

Category Fund Count AUM 5 Day 30 Day 90 Day YTD 1 Year
Focused – Industrial Metals 4 $1.12B $18M -$15M $48M $438M $704M
Specialty – Shipping Freight 2 $64M $1M -$28M -$44M -$32M -$93M
Specialty – Carbon Credits 3 $265M $0M -$5M -$8M -$26M -$35M
Focused – Energy 11 $3.55B -$10M $342M -$329M $646M $519M
Focused – Agriculture 8 $2.14B -$156M -$504M $328M $1,148M $1,102M
Multi-Sector – Broad Market 28 $23.09B -$246M $76M $1,341M $3,767M $5,650M
Focused – Precious Metals 16 $276.19B -$2,560M -$6,570M -$7,219M -$12,249M $21,282M

Top & Bottom 5 ETFs by 5-Day Flow

Despite its poor weekly performance, the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) led all funds with $104 million in net inflows, suggesting some investors were buying the dip. However, outflows from the two largest gold ETFs dominated the week’s activity. The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) saw a massive $1.77 billion exit, while the iShares Gold Trust (IAU) shed $751 million.

Ticker Fund Name 5-Day Flow
Inflows
SLV iShares Silver Trust $104M
USO United States Oil Fund LP $103M
CPER United States Copper Index Fund $18M
GLTR abrdn Physical Precious Metals Basket Shares ETF $10M
PIT VanEck Commodity Strategy ETF $7M
Outflows
GLD SPDR Gold Shares -$1,765M
IAU iShares Gold Trust -$751M
PDBA Invesco Agriculture Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF -$96M
PDBC Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF -$77M
GLDM SPDR Gold Minishares Trust of beneficial interest -$72M

Issuer League Table Update

The issuer landscape remains concentrated, with SPDR and iShares controlling a combined 83.8% of the channel’s assets. The week’s flow story mirrored the fund-level activity, as SPDR experienced the largest outflows at $1.83 billion, followed by iShares with $733 million in redemptions. On the other side of the ledger, US Commodity Funds led all issuers in collections, albeit with a comparatively small net inflow of $37 million.

Top 5 Issuers by AUM

Brand Fund Count AUM AUM Market Share
SPDR 3 $158.50B 51.73%
iShares 7 $98.40B 32.11%
aberdeen 7 $18.34B 5.99%
Invesco 9 $9.35B 3.05%
US Commodity Funds 8 $4.06B 1.33%

Top & Bottom 3 Issuers by 5-Day Flow

Brand 5-Day Flow
Inflows
US Commodity Funds $37M
VanEck $7M
PIMCO $5M
Outflows
SPDR -$1,834M
iShares -$733M
Invesco -$265M

For a deeper dive into these trends, access our FREE, in-depth Commodity ETF reports in the right side panel of this page.

Disclosures

This material is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. All investments, including ETFs, involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Investors should consider their investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing.

This analysis was developed by the team at ETF Action. We leverage advanced AI tools to assist in the drafting and refinement of our content, based on our expert prompts, direction, and final review.