Recently, World Gold Council released Gold ETF Commentary & said, 2024 began with continued outflows!
Global physically backed gold ETFs began 2024 with US$2.8bn outflows in January, stretching their losing streak to eight months.
This was equivalent to a 51t reduction in global holdings, which lowered to 3,175t by the end of January. Meanwhile, total Assets Under Management (AUM) fell to US$210bn, a 2% decline due to outflows in the month and a 1% gold price fall.
Overall, North America led global outflows and European funds continued to see heavy losses. Asia captured another inflow while fund flow changes in the other region were limited.
Globally, low-cost gold ETFs saw their eighth consecutive monthly outflow in January, losing US$207mn (-4t). North America (-US$243mn) drove global outflows while low-cost funds in Europe registered inflows (+US$32mn) Following January’s loss, the total AUM of low-cost funds declined by 1% to US$55bn. Meanwhile, their collective holdings fell to 832t, the lowest since April 2021.
As outflows from global gold ETFs continued, trading activities in the market were tepid (-18% m/m). Based on net longs on 26th December 2023. Net longs on COMEX declined to 471t as of January, a 30% decrease compared to the end-2023 level (677t). Money manager net longs experienced a deeper fall as the gold price retreated, plunging by 47% m/m and reaching 224t at the end of January.