Investors cut holdings in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for silver, platinum and palladium in the second quarter on fears that a potential recession would reduce industrial demand, but gold assets held up because of its role as a haven, and that might persist.
Gold-backed ETFs shrank by just more than 1 percent in the three months through last month, after an 8 percent surge in the first quarter helped by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, data compiled by Bloomberg sowed.
By contrast, silver holdings contracted almost 5 percent, and the outflow in tonnage terms was the biggest since 2011.
Photo: Reuters
The amount in gold ETFs is the lowest since March, while assets in the other three precious metals are around the smallest since 2020.
Gold has held up well relative to silver and platinum. One ounce of gold now buys 90 ounces of silver, the most in almost two years.
The resilience of gold offers yet more evidence to support its role as a component in portfolio asset allocation, in contrast to silver, platinum and palladium, which have more industrial uses and are therefore more exposed to economic downturns, ETF Securities senior business development manager Chad Hitzeman said.
“Where broader markets remain negative, pressured by inflation and central bank hawkishness in taming prices, we see investors holding fast to gold ETFs as a risk-off haven,” said Hitzeman, whose company offers several precious metals products to investors.
Giovanni Staunovo, a strategist at UBS Group AG’s wealth management unit, shared this sentiment.
“If market recession fears are increasing, you prefer to hold exposure to gold and not to the white metals, which have a high industrial usage,” he said.
Gold for August delivery fell US$5.80 to US$1,801.50 an ounce on Friday, down 1.57 percent from a week earlier.
Silver for September delivery fell US$0.68 to US$19.67 an ounce, plunging 6.9 percent weekly, while September copper fell US$0.11 to US$3.60 a pound, posting a weekly decline of 3.74 percent.
Additional reporting by AP
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) employee bonuses are likely to grow more than 30 percent this year, in line with the past few years as the company’s profits continue to set new records, an anonymous source cited TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as saying yesterday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is committed to taking care of its workers, the source said, citing Wei’s meeting with employees yesterday morning. Wei also expressed gratitude to employees for their contribution to the company’s improving bottom line, the source added. Since 2023, TSMC’s employee bonuses have grown at an annual rate of
RSS