Commodities In Review: May 2019

March was a rough month for commodity ETFs, with only eight funds landing in positive territory. The Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALL) saw a reversal of the fund’s upward trend, declining 10.02% during the month. PALL was followed by the iPath Bloomberg Lead Subindex Total Return ETN (LD), down 6.93%, and the United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG), down 5.52%. The top-performing fund was the United States Gasoline Fund LP (UGA), up 8.29%, while the iPath Series B Bloomberg Cotton Subindex Total Return ETN (BAL) was up 6.75% and the United States Oil Fund LP (USO) was up 4.57%. In terms of flows, commodity ETFs saw net outflows of $272.5 million. USO had the most dramatic flows, with a loss of $136.2 million, while UNG followed, with a $68 million loss, and the iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust (GSG) declined $37.4 million. The Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF (PDBC) pulled in $77.8 million, followed by the iPath Series B Bloomberg Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN (JO), which gained $7.9 million, and the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), which pulled in $5.5 million.

Source: Bloomberg. Data from 02/28/2019 to 03/31/2019. ETFs chosen to represent each sector based on the most liquid ETF in each segment of the ETF.com ETF Classification System.